Alistair Darling's budget day morning

Chancellor Alistair Darling has breakfast with his wife Margaret (centre) and Ann Coffey, his private secretary, at 10 Downing Street, London Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/PA

A man walks past a piece of street art mounted by Conservative party activists showing the chancellor, Alistair Darling, and the prime minister, Gordon Brown, in a 'financial black hole' outside the Treasury building in London Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, during the cabinet meeting on budget day in Downing Street, central London Photograph: Stephen Hird/PA

Prime minister Gordon Brown and chancellor Alistair Darling arrive for a visit to a telephone exchange in north London. They were viewing an upgrade of the exchange to new fast-fibre broadband and training of Openreach apprentices Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Chancellor Alistair Darling tours a telephone exchange in north London Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters