‘Feelgood’ budget may woo UK voters

UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has a chance to bolster the re-election prospects of prime minister David Cameron next week when he announces his last budget before a knife-edge election.

The election on May 7 is shaping up to be the most unpredictable in decades with anti-establishment parties gaining support and big differences emerging between the Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party on how to run the world’s sixth-biggest economy and Britain’s membership of the European Union.

With the main political parties neck-and-neck in opinion polls, Mr Osborne wants to use his budget on March 18 to try to make Britons feel they are benefiting from the economy’s turnaround.