Alistair Darling plans to use a revenue windfall to trim projected UK borrowing by £5bn to £10bn in next week’s Budget, making debt reduction a priority as he tries to put public finances on a sounder footing. As Lord Mandelson admitted that taxes might have to rise after the election, official data on Thursday showed that receipts had not fallen as much as the chancellor feared in December. Public spending is on course to end the year close to target, meaning that the government will be in the red by about £170bn.

This entry was posted by Tracy Alloway on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 2:53 and is featured in The 6am Cut London (19 Mar 2010) . Tagged with Alistair Darling, Deficits, Sovereign debt, UK. Edit this entry.