George Osborne's new financial year gets off to 'a disappointing start'

ONS reveals government borrowing at 600m more than expected for April with deficit figures for March also revised up

The chancellor, George Osborne, has fallen behind in his deficit-reduction programme just a month into the new financial year, with the government borrowing more than expected in April.

The UK government had to borrow 7.2bn last month to plug the gap between spending and earnings, according to the Office for National Statistics.