Budget will be 'day of reckoning'
The Budget will confirm that Britain is suffering its worst economic downturn since the Second World War, opposition parties have predicted.
Conservative leader David Cameron said that the Budget would prove "the day of reckoning" for Labour, with "dreadful" figures showing that the Government's attempt to spend its way out of recession was not working and a change of direction was needed.
Chancellor Alistair Darling has already indicated that he will sharply downgrade his forecasts for output as he sets out his view of Britain's prospects for economic recovery in one of the most anxiously awaited Budgets of recent years.
At the same time, the worsening state of the public finances - with borrowing expected to hit £160 billion this year - has left him little scope for fresh action to revive the economy.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has warned that the Government cannot afford a repeat of the £20 billion "stimulus" package announced by Mr Darling in the Pre-Budget Report (PBR) in November.
Instead, he looks set to be confined to a more modest set of measures - including some "targeted" action to help the unemployed as the dole queues continue to lengthen.
Mr Darling will also issue his own estimate of the cost of the bank bail-out - put at £60 billion according to reports - admitting for the first time that the Government may not recover the full costs.
Mr Cameron said the Government was "too weak" to get debt under control and had wasted money on initiatives such as the temporary 2.5% cut in VAT.
He told Sky News: "The Government's approach of 'spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow' is not working and today is going to be the day of reckoning."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable told GMTV: "The Government is faced with a very deep recession, probably the worst we've had since the Second World War."
