Norman Lamont made it count in 1992's budget - Osborne can do it in 2015

Chancellor will offer pre-election sweeteners today - but they don't always help, as Ken Clarke found in 1997 when his income tax cut couldn't save John Major

A little bit of history will be made by George Osborne today. For the first time in more than two decades he has the opportunity to deliver a pre-election budget that actually counts.

Since Norman Lamont's package before the 1992 election, that hasn't been the case. Ken Clarke cut income tax before the 1997 election but the writing was already on the wall for John Major's government. Gordon Brown showed some largesse ahead of the 2001 and the 2005 elections but the result was never in doubt on either occasion. The Treasury cupboard was bare by the time Alastair Darling delivered the last Labour budget in 2010.

Related: Budget 2015: what we know already and what we can expect