text: 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 won'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 hadn'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 wasn't caused by Labour's spending – it wasn'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 hadn'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 hadn'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.'
target: 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'
  Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander has finally responded to the note .
  Mr Alexander wrote: 'Sorry for the late reply, I've been fixing the economy'