It has been revealed that the UK government borrowed £5 billion less in February than had been forecast which should in a perfect world reduce the estimated budget deficit for the current tax year from £178 billion to £173 billion. Whether this pans out perfectly for the UK government remains to be seen but it looks as though Alistair Darling will have a £5 billion windfall to fund potential giveaways at the next budget.

However, despite the fact the Alistair Darling may well have an excess £5 billion to play with this is a very difficult call because giving away £5 billion as a potential incentive to Labour voters is dangerous although on the other hand retaining the £5 billion windfall with the UK economy still struggling will also attract controversy. If any potential giveaways in the budget are seen as blatant electioneering then this could backfire on Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling at the polls.

There is no doubt that the forthcoming budget is the most important and most complicated which Alistair Darling has had to encounter in his period in office at the Treasury. When you also take into account speculation that Gordon Brown is still trying to pull the strings at the Treasury it will be interesting to see if any of Alistair Darling's long known requests are part of the budget.

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