The British government's growing budget deficit blew out by an additional 20.3 billion pounds ($33 billion) in November, the largest monthly figure since records began in 1993, according to statistics released Friday. The figure was not as bad as the 23 billion pounds feared by economists, but is still another unwanted record for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government as it heads into a general election year. The Office for National Statistics said the shortfall was up from 15.5 billion pounds in the same month a year earlier, pushing national debt to 60.2 percent of economic output. Brown and Treasury chief Alistair Darling have resisted calls for tougher steps such as deep spending cuts or tax increases to curb government borrowing. They say the need to support Britain's tentative economic recovery outweighs immediate desires to reduce the deficit. Darling has instead pledged to halve the deficit - which has reached 83.2 million pounds so far this year - over the next four years. That stance appears to be gaining some sway with voters as the government has narrowed the lead in opinion polls.
