U.K. Budget Gap Swells to Record as Spending Jumps

ec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s budget deficit swelled to a record in November, underscoring the challenge facing Prime Minister David Cameron as his government prepares to implement the deepest spending cuts since World War II.

Net borrowing was 22.8 billion pounds ($35.4 billion), compared with 16.7 billion pounds a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. The median of 12 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey was 16.8 billion pounds. Spending rose the most since February. The shortfall excluding government support for banks was 23.3 billion pounds.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said there was a “constant battle going on behind the scenes” between his Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives over how to reduce the budget shortfall. As Britons brace for spending cuts and tax increases, Cable’s comments to undercover newspaper reporters from the Daily Telegraph newspaper illustrate Cameron’s struggles to hold the coalition government together.

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The figures reinforce that the UK with its City banks is in deep trouble. Adding Ireland´s woes and other wrong bank policy and there you go: Lloyds Banking Doubles Bad-Loan Charge for Irish Unit

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=asoiAgZ45bTA