Prime minister says the Budget will be in two weeks and warns of risks in cutting public spending 'recklessly and rapidly'

The government will announce its pre-election Budget in “two weeks’ time”, prime minister Gordon Brown said today.

It is now expected that the Treasury will confirm in a written statement to parliament that the long-awaited speech will take place on Wednesday 24 March.

In his speech, Brown re-iterated warnings against “recklessly and rapidly” cutting public spending, saying this would “risk driving our economy back into recession.”

The Conservative Party have been pushing Labour to use the Budget to give more information on how the party would halve the deficit over the next Parliament.