Treasury spending higher than in WWI - papers

Spending will this year surpass the 46.5pc of private sector gross domestic product level it hit when the Government was spending millions on mobilising troops, building weapons and financing trench warfare in 1917. The revelation forms part of a study that traces the evolution of the Budget over the past century. It comes in the wake of the warning from Standard & Poor's last month that the UK faces a possible downgrade in its credit rating unless it puts the public finances in order. Full story...