Plans to cut VAT

Thare have been suggestions that VAT maybe cut from 17.5% to 15%.

Alistair Darlings plan will be announced on Monday. These will also include tax cuts targeted at poorer people and increased spending.

The BBC's political correspondent Jo Coburn said the VAT will benefit a larger range of people than the tax cuts would. She also added: the government's priority was to get "any extra money in people's pockets as quickly as possible and to get them out there spending that money and so boosting the economy".

Alistair Darling will tell the House of Commons that the plans will leave Britain 100bn in debt. Yet he insists "If we do not act now, the downturn will be longer and more severe," he says in the article.