Public finances: Borrowing hits £10bn mark

The rise – up from 8.8bn a year earlier – underlined the scale of the task ahead for new Chancellor George Osborne to tackle the UK's deficit but the figure was not quite as bad as the 10.9bn feared by the City.

The Office for National Statistics also revised down borrowing for the year 2009-10 to 156.1bn – although this is still a record high.

IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer said: "The good news for the new Chancellor is that the public finances data for April saw a continuation of the recent trend of slowing deterioration.

"The bad news for Mr Osborne is that the public finances remain horrible and that he has one hell of a job in front of him."

Total tax receipts were 2.8bn ahead of the same month last year at 41.2bn, helped by the economic recovery and VAT returning to 17.5 per cent but spending was still 11bn ahead of the tax take at 52.2bn.