Ed Miliband has urged Chancellor George Osborne to renew the former Labour government's tax on bank bonuses, saying that it could be used to fund 110,000 new jobs at a time when the economy was stalled.
The Labour leader said that Mr Osborne needed to take urgent action in next week's Budget to boost the prospects for growth.
The Conservatives insisted that their sums did not add up, accusing Labour of making £12 billion of unfunded spending commitments while opposing Government spending cuts.
Mr Miliband said that the Government would raise an estimated £2 billion from repeating the one-off windfall tax on bank bonuses imposed by former chancellor Alistair Darling.
He told a Westminster news conference that the revenue could be used to build 25,000 new homes at a cost of £1.2 billion, generating 20,000 additional jobs in the construction industry.
A further £600 million could be used to create a fund for youth jobs, helping 90,000 into work and apprenticeships, while Labour would use £200 million to boost the regional growth fund.
"We are under no illusions that at this stage this Government will abandon their deficit reduction plan - they are too dug in for that. But at least they should take some steps to deal with faltering growth in our economy," he said.
"As a matter of simple fairness, at a time when everyone else is facing tax rises, it is completely wrong for this Tory-led government to choose to cut taxes for the banks."
However Treasury minister Justine Greening dismissed calls for a repeat tax on bankers' bonuses, saying that it would actually raise less overall than the Government's permanent bank levy.
"Even their last Labour chancellor, Alistair Darling, said he thought it was ineffective because of people's ability to avoid it. It would bring in less than the bank levy, which Labour has opposed. Their arguments don't stack up," she said.
