The trade gap in gas and other fuels more than doubled in a month to a record deficit of 373 million.

We are still in a big fiscal mess, with a record deficit and a level of debt that will carry on rising for several years.

You may question this, and point to the sharp 2008-9 swing into record deficit in the public finances as evidence.

A record deficit, defence cuts and now strikes.

He inherited a huge surplus that has become a record deficit.