In the last 24 hours, more than 8,000 people have tweeted using the hashtag #budget2015

In the last three hours, nearly 4,000 people have tweeted using the hashtag #budget2015

In the last hour, nearly 3,000 people have tweeted using the hashtag #budget2015

In the last hour, over 1,000 people have tweeted using the name George Osborne

People are tweeting about the Budget using the hashtags #budget2015, #osborne and #georgeosborne

tweets:, external Osborne's #Budget2015 can't go this badly, can it? (h/t @Dannythefink)

Image source, Twitter

BBC News Channel

Asked about low UK productivity, Iain Duncan Smith says: "Productivity is a historic issue for the UK. What we've seen is a big recession, people going into lower incomes, losing their jobs... The first thing you have to do is get people back to work. [Then] what business now does is invest more money in improving their capability in work and that's how you get productivity up. So we will see that improve." But the work and pensions secretary added: "If you haven't got a job, productivity becomes an esoteric argument."

tweets, external: The highest employment rate in our history is not a dry fact, it means more people with the security of a pay packet and a brighter future.

Here's the line from Business Secretary Vince Cable on today's employment figures, which he claims are a "historic moment": "With almost three quarters of working age people now in work, we have achieved the highest rate of employment in the UK since records began. This is a sign that the long term decisions the Liberal Democrats have taken in government have created a more resilient economy. But we have also created a fairer economy with everyone sharing in the fruits of our recovery."

BBC News Channel

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says some features of the latest ONS employment figures are "highly remarkable". For one, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit is the lowest since the 1970s - "that is staggering," he says. The number of people in social housing and out of work are also "the lowest since records began", he adds.

tweets, external: #Employment rate 73.3% for Nov-Jan 2015, highest figure on record

Image source, ONS

For the three months ending January 2015, the ONS says, 73.3% of people aged from 16 to 64 were in work, up from 72.1% a year earlier. The unemployment rate for the three months ending January 2015 was 5.7%, down from 7.2% a year earlier.

The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance last month fell by 31,000 to 791,200, said the Office for National Statistics.

The latest unemployment figures show further signs of improvement: in the three months to January 2015 the number of people out of work fell by 102,000 to 8.6m.

tweets:, external Some suggestions PM exercised his First Lordly rights over Treasury in easing away from unpopular "colossal cuts"

Our colleagues have written up the story about "the death of the tax return". Sadly, it doesn't mean you can get out of filing them altogether, just that you can do it all online and not in a rush at the end of the year.

tweets:, external Pre budget cabinet ends @dannyalexander says "delighted" with #budget2015 #modesty

Cathy Jamieson, shadow Treasury minister, says the way to size up today's Budget is by assessing what it means for ordinary people. "If the chancellor sticks to his spending plans and tries to deliver a pretty large surplus in 2019/20," she tells the BBC News Channel, "that means there's going to be deeper cuts in the next five years than there were in the last four years." She doubts whether this will "help the majority of families across the country who are worse off".

tweets:, external Just shouted at chief secretary "are you going to do your own budget mr alexander?"... He said "tomorrow", smiling.

tweets:, external Osborne on Marr BBC Sunday "so no giveaways, no gimmicks, a Budget for the long term." I'll be counting giveaways and gimmicks!

Steve, in Builth Wells, emails: "I would like to see a tax-free allowance for interest earned outside of an ISA. An allowance of £5,000 would save pensioners £1,000 on their non-ISA savings interest and help compensate for the current low interest rates."

Norman Smith
Chief political correspondent, BBC News Channel

tweets, external: The Budget Pigeon is back. #budget15

tweets:, external Budget & jobs data both due today. Will show that gvt's main success has been job creation, not deficit reduction or spending reform.

BBC News Channel

Image source, PA

Liberal Democrats remain committed to deficit reduction, deputy leader Malcolm Bruce says. "We still have to secure the recovery, we have to get the budget balanced. If there's little room for manoeuvre so be it, but it's up to the next government to finish the job." He's standing down at the next election and will be replaced, the SNP hopes, by none other than Alex Salmond. "If the Liberal Democrats are not strong in the next government, then everything that's been achieved - the growth, the recovery, the low inflation, the rising living standards - could all be at risk," Mr Bruce adds. "And nothing could put it at risk more than a huge surge in the SNP making more powers for Scotland more important than jobs, inflation, mortgages." Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander have played a key role in forming today's Budget as part of the 'quad' with David Cameron and George Osborne, pictured above.