Danny Alexander has finally replied to the infamous note left in the Treasury by a Labour predecessor , saying there was 'no money ' left . Liam Byrne , who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown , left a memo on his desk after Labour 's election defeat in 2010 . The memo , found by his Liberal Democrat successor David Laws , said : 'Dear Chief Secretary , I 'm afraid that there is no money . Kind regards and good luck . ' Mr Alexander , the present Chief Secretary , today finally got round to sending a letter to Mr Byrne apologising for the late reply – saying it was because he had been 'fixing the economy ' . It said : 'The deficit halved . Jobs up . Growth up . That 's the Liberal Democrat record , ' he wrote . 'We wo n't let you – or the Tories – screw it up ! ' Scroll down for video . Danny Alexander tweeted a picture of himself with his response to the infamous note left in the Treasury by his Labour predecessor Liam Byrne , saying there was 'no money ' left . Mr Alexander , the present Chief Secretary , today sent a letter ( left ) to Mr Byrne apologising for the late reply to his original note ( right ) – saying it was because he had been 'fixing the economy ' The original note has haunted Labour since it was first published in the days after Coalition was formed in 2010 . Ed Balls sparked a furious response from David Cameron earlier this month after he dismissed the letter as a 'jokey note ' . The note has become emblematic of Labour 's fiscal irresponsibility in office and was used by Mr Cameron in the seven-way leaders ' debate earlier this month . When the Coalition took office in 2010 the budget deficit had reached more than £150billion – more than 10 per cent of the entire size of the economy . But Mr Ball insisted the note admitting that Labour had blown the nation 's finances should not be taken seriously . Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is joined by his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez at The Devonshire Arms in Sheffield today . The Deputy Prime Minister is hoping his message that the Lib Dems can be trusted with the economy will help turn around his party 's dire position in the polls . He told BBC West Midlands : 'Liam Byrne 's note was a jokey note… of the course the money had n't run out . ' Mr Balls said Labour would cut the deficit – still running at £90billion a year – every year . He said : 'Nothing in our manifesto is going to require additional borrowing . I think in tough times , people want a government which will make tough decisions , and will make the sums add up , and that is what we 're saying very clearly today . ' But he was asked if Labour was 'credible ' and could be trusted with the economy . Liam Byrne , who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown , left the original memo on his desk after Labour 's election defeat . Mr Balls said : ' I think people want to know the sums add up . People know that the global financial crisis was n't caused by Labour 's spending – it was n't Labour 's spending on nurses and doctors which meant the Lehman Brothers investment bank went bankrupt in New York . 'Liam Byrne 's note was a jokey note , of course the money had n't run out . ' Mr Balls blamed the Lib Dem minister David Laws for leaking the note . He said it was supposed to be a private note , adding : 'It was supposed to be a piece of humour . In fact , in that year , the government spend hundreds of billions of pounds , so of course the money had n't run out , but there was a large deficit , and we had to get it down , and we needed to get it down in a fair way . 'The reason why we 're more credible than the Tories now is that they 're not people who understand the need for change in the economy , it 's not been all in it together , they 've not even balanced the books – it 's going to take a Labour government to do it . ' The Prime Minister said Mr Balls 's response was 'frankly the most appalling thing I have heard in this election campaign so far ' . He claimed Balls was Ed Miliband 's third choice to be shadow chancellor and was frankly 'the country 's last choice to be put in charge of this nation 's finances ' . He said : 'The note that was left was correct . It said there was no money left . Let us think about the consequences of what we inherited and what we had to do . We had to make difficult decisions , we had to find efficiencies in government spending , we had to put up some taxes . 'We had to make some very very difficult decisions to get this country back on track . That note that said there is no money left was referring to the fact that our budget deficit was forecast to be bigger than the budget deficit in Greece when I became prime minister . '
Labour 's Liam Byrne left a memo for the incoming Coalition government . The letter , left on Mr Byrne 's desk , read : ' I 'm afraid there is no money ' Labour Secretary Danny Alexander has finally responded to the note . Mr Alexander wrote : 'Sorry for the late reply , I 've been fixing the economy '