ED MILIBAND risked walking into a Tory trap yesterday by joining the chorus claiming that reducing Britain’s deficit will be the defining general election issue, according to top economist Ann Pettifor.

Ms Pettifor said the Labour leader “struck a chord” by calling out Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement as “extreme” and “ideological.”

But the Prime Economics head warned that he had played in to Mr Osborne’s hands by putting reducing Britain’s deficit at the centre of his plan for government.