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Britain has fallen into its worst recession since the 1980s, official government figures have confirmed.

According to the Office for National Statistics the economy shrank again in the last three months of 2008 by 1.5 % and that’s after a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter.

With economic growth falling in two consecutive quarters the UK has met the official definition of a recession. The downturn, greater than economists predicted, marks the worst performance since the slump of the early eighties, which saw unemployment rise above three million.

The figures come as the jobless total soared to 1.92 million and as the Government bailed out troubled banks for a second time, pulling the economy from the brink of collapse.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said the figures underlined the scale of the challenges the government faced. He said: “It’s going to be a difficult year for families in the UK. We need to go about the problem with a sense of purpose.”

But Christian financial advisor Sid Cordle said people need to start seeking God for the solution:

“What we need to do as a nation is get on our knees and realise that maybe man has not got the answer to all these massive problems. We actually ought to start praying as a nation rather than throwing lots of money at the problem.”

Mr Cordle said he would love the church to tell Gordon Brown to start praying about the situation.

“If the Church could actually say to the Government ‘let’s call for a national day of prayer to come before God with the problems of the nation’ that would be a massive step forward. For every individual, whatever their situation in the present time, they need to say ‘right God what do you want me to do, how do you want me to behave with my finances.”

The debate on the length and depth of the recession is complicated to predict at this stage but some economists believe it could stretch as far as 2010. Usually recessions will last for between 3-5 quarters.