George Osborne's “counterproductive” austerity measures have left Britain £10.7 billion further in the red than was expected, official figures showed yesterday.

Underlying public-sector debt was £1.27 trillion for the year to the end of March, ahead of the £1.26trn forecast last month by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

It meant that the sum owed by the public purse rose more steeply than predicted to 75.8 per cent of GDP, compared to the 74.5 per cent OBR forecast.

Left Economic Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said the figures proved the failure of savage Tory cuts.

He told the Star: “The deficit figures are another reminder of the Chancellor’s failure.

“When he posed as our economic saviour in June 2010, Osborne pledged that the deficit would be down to 3.5 per cent today, just £40 billion.

“Instead, due to his counterproductive austerity policy, the deficit is 6.6 per cent and he had to borrow £107 billion last year — an extra £60 billion.

“The cumulative cost of Osborne is being paid for in cuts to people’s public services, attacks on pay and pensions and with fire sales of public assets like Royal Mail.”

The government’s debt level was below 40 per cent before the 2008 financial crisis.

Britain’s overall debt — including bank bail-outs — was £2.22trn, or 132.4 per cent of GDP.

The deficit remains the second-highest as a share of GDP of any of the major G7 economies — exceeded only by Japan.