The Chancellor pledged to raise the income tax rate for those earning over £150,000 to 50 per cent. Additionally, those earning over £150,000 will see their tax relief on their pension?s savings cut.

He also confirmed that the government will be forced to borrow £175bn this year and £173bn the next, and would have to increase the size of the national debt from recent levels of below 40 per cent to almost 80 per cent within the next five years.

Acknowledging that his already-downgraded economic forecasts from November were significantly over-optimistic, the Chancellor predicted that the UK economy would shrink by 3.5 per cent this year.

This Budget represents a modest giveaway worth around 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product, with measures to help pensioners and savers among the highlights. However, this giveaway will be more than cancelled out in the coming years as taxes increase on almost all members of the public.