Alistair Darling borrows £5k a second

The recession has forced the Government to borrow more than £5,000 a second to pay for public services, "atrocious" official figures revealed today.

The Chancellor was lent £13billion in June - the highest ever for the month - bringing his borrowing for the financial year so far to £41.2billion, more than the defence budget.

That makes 2009/10 the fourth worst year in history for Government borrowing, even though it is only three months old. Borrowing to date has only been exceeded in an entire 12 months by last year, and the three years in 1992 to 1995.

The growing black hole - which Alistair Darling has forecast will hit £175billion this year - is being widened by falling tax revenues and the need to pay benefits to the growing ranks of unemployed.

The June figures came the day after public auditors identified the worst slump in the Government's tax take since the Twenties and refused to sign off six sets of national accounts.

The figures show company tax receipts are down 14 cent on last year, while VAT revenues are 16 per cent lower.

Public spending in June rose by £1.2billion to £44.9billion with the cost of social security up almost 10 per cent at £13.3billion. The strain would have been even worse if it were not for a dramatically reduced interest bill of just £600million on the national debt.

Total outstanding Government debt now stands at just under £800billion - or 56.6 per cent of GDP.

The only glimmer of hope was that the figures were slightly less dire than most City forecasts, although many economists still believe borrowing will breach £200billion this year.

Vicky Redwood, UK economist at forecasters Capital Economics, said: "June's UK public finances figures are a touch better than expected, but do absolutely nothing to alter the big picture that they are in a dreadful state. We still expect a [public debt] figure of around £200billion or even higher."

David Buik, of City brokers BGC Partners, said: "One shudders to think who is going to pay for this. My grandchildren will almost certainly be ticking like a meter because of Gordon Brown's profligacy."

The frantic borrowing and a new poll showing strong support for cuts mean deep public spending reductions after the next election are inevitable.

An opinion survey found four out of five voters believe significant spending cuts will happen whoever wins the election.

A third believed cuts were the right policy to rebalance public finances, while two-fifths said there should be a combination of cuts and tax increases. Only one in five believed that taxes should be increased to curb the need to borrow.

Today's Populus poll in the Times delivered a major blow to Gordon Brown's election strategy of offering a choice between higher spending under Labour, with public service cuts under David Cameron.