Darling saysspending details 'willhave to wait'

Mr Darling confirmed that he plans to protect funding for the NHS and schools, but said he would not conduct a full spending review until there was more certainty about the economy.

He insisted Labour was “absolutely committed” to halving Britain’s record deficit within four years, and repeated warnings that to go faster and further – as Conservatives plan – would be an “unacceptable risk” to the economy.

No date has yet been set for the last Budget before this year’s general election, leading to speculation that Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be planning to go to the country without a final statement from his Chancellor which might expose the full extent of the UK’s economic difficulties to voters.

Conventionally, around four weeks’ notice is given of the Budget date, leaving very little time for it to be announced ahead of the favoured election date of May 6.

Mr Darling gave no hints about the timing of his statement in a BBC interview. But he said: “I am not going to do a spending review now. I have been very clear since the end of 2008 that until we saw there was a little bit more certainty about what was happening, it would be wrong to finally decide on what the spending allocations would be for each and every department.”