Doubts have been raised over the government’s ability to unveil tax cuts ahead of the next general election after official figures revealed borrowing was higher than expected in the past year.

The Treasury borrowed £120.7bn in the financial year ending March 2024 – down £7.6bn from the year before, according to provisional estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, the figure is £6.6bn more than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) only a month ago.

Overall, government debt was around 98.3% of the UK’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) in March – up 2.6 percentage points from the previous year and at levels not seen since the early 1960s.

Ruth Gregory, an economist from Capital Economics, said: “If the chancellor was hoping March’s figures would provide more scope for tax cuts at a fiscal event later this year, he will have been disappointed.

“Just based on the larger-than-expected 2023/24 budget deficit and the recent shift up in market interest rates, he may have even less fiscal ‘headroom’ (perhaps about £5bn) for tax cuts than the £8.9bn left over in March.”

Rob Wood, from Pantheon Macroeconomics, said he still expected the chancellor to cut taxes, but warned it would leave a financial headache for the Treasury after the next election, which is expected in the autumn.

He said: “[Jeremy] Hunt can plan for another year of unrealistically weak public spending to generate ‘headroom’ against his fiscal rules and thereby manufacture the funds to cut taxes.

“The next government will, therefore, face a tricky choice between raising taxes to fix creaking public services or holding the line on the chancellor’s recent tax cuts.”

Mr Hunt cut national insurance by 2p in the budget earlier this year and has said he would like to reduce taxes further.

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Jessica Barnaby, the ONS’s deputy director for public sector finances, said: “Spending was up about £58bn, with increased spending on public services and benefits outstripping large reductions in interest payable and energy support scheme costs. But with public sector income up £66bn, overall, the deficit still fell.

“At the end of the financial year, debt remained close to the annual value of the output of the economy, at levels last seen in the early 1960s.”

The figures also revealed that benefit payments increased by £36.9bn to £291.4bn during the year, amid inflation-linked increases and extra cost of living support.

Central government wages rose by £21bn, including health and education, but inflation-linked debt fell 27% to £78.3bn.

Receipts from inheritance tax also climbed to a record high of nearly £7.5bn.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said: “Debt increased in recent years because we rightly protected millions of jobs during COVID and paid half of people’s energy bills after [Vladimir] Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent bills skyrocketing.

“We can’t leave future generations to pick up the tab, so we must stick to the plan to get debt falling. And with inflation falling and wages rising – we have been able to cut national insurance by a third, which shows our determination to end the double taxation of work”.

Investors in Getir, the grocery delivery app which at one point attained a valuation of almost £10bn, are to inject yet more money into the company to fund its exit from the UK and Europe.

Sky News has learnt that shareholders in the company have drawn up provisional plans to commit tens of millions of pounds more into Getir in the coming weeks, even as its retrenchment poses a threat to thousands of jobs.

Sources close to the situation said that leading investors, who include Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi state-backed fund, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, were understood to have agreed to the new funding plan in recent days.

It will add to the more than $2bn Getir has already raised, making it one of the world’s most handsomely backed fast-delivery platforms.

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An announcement from Getir – which means ‘to bring’ in Turkish – is expected imminently, bringing the curtain down on an ill-fated breakneck expansion into Europe.

Its operations in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are all expected to be shut, with discussions ongoing about the fate of its Fresh Direct arm in the US, which it only acquired a few months ago.

The restructuring will leave Getir as a business focused on its domestic Turkish market, with the company planning to focus largely on its food delivery operations there.

Its new funding from shareholders would cover the cost of exiting the three markets in Europe, as well as providing additional capital to invest in the Turkish business, according to insiders.

An announcement could come this week, although people close to the company cautioned that the exact timing had yet to be finalised.

The valuation at which the new money is being injected was unclear on Tuesday.

Its withdrawal from the UK is likely to put about 1,500 jobs at risk, Sky News revealed last week.

The company was valued at nearly $12bn just a couple of years ago amid booming demand for services provided by Getir and rivals like GoPuff, DoorDash and Deliveroo.

Getir, which has a multimillion-pound commercial partnership with the Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, said it did not comment on “market rumours”.

It has previously denied that any form of insolvency was on the cards for the group or its subsidiaries.

The company is understood to have drafted in restructuring advisers in recent days, while Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi fund that is one of its biggest shareholders, is being advised by AlixPartners.

It has already pulled out of a number of countries, including Italy and Spain, in an attempt to reduce losses.

Its retreat highlights the slumping valuations of technology companies once-hailed as the new titans of food retailing.

Founded in 2015, Getir was one of the hottest start-ups of the pandemic, when financiers rushed to plough billions of dollars into businesses they believed would benefit from structural shifts in the economy.

It raised more than $750m in a funding round in early 2022, but has seen its valuation slump since then.

Last September, Getir also announced a sharp cut in the size of its workforce, axeing roughly 2,500 jobs, or about 10% of its global employee base.

Many of its rivals have already gone bust, while others have been swallowed up as part of a desperate wave of consolidation.

Getir itself bought Gorillas in a $1.2bn stock-based deal that closed in December 2022.

Senior figures at the Post Office began describing computer bugs as “exceptions” as they grappled with mounting complaints from sub-postmasters about its faulty Horizon IT system, it has emerged.

The then Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells made the suggestion to colleagues after she asked her husband for advice on a “non-emotive” way of referring to computer problems, the inquiry into the Post Office scandal heard.

It came amid concern within the company about bad publicity over the prosecution of sub-postmasters accused of stealing from branches.

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 Post Office managers were prosecuted after the faulty accounting software, provided by Fujitsu, made it seem like money was missing. At the time, the company insisted its systems were robust.

On Tuesday the inquiry heard evidence from the Post Office’s former lead in-house lawyer Susan Crichton, who was quizzed about a series of emails sent between senior figures.

This included a message from Ms Vennells, written in July 2013, which said: “My engineer/computer literate husband sent the following reply to the question: ‘What is a non-emotive word for computer bugs, glitches, defects that happen as a matter of course?’

“Answer: ‘Exception or anomaly. You can also say conditional exception/anomaly which only manifests itself under unforeseen circumstances xx'”

The Post Office’s director of communications at the time, Mark Davies, replied: “I like exception v much. Very helpful”.

Following the exchange, Post Office emails and documents began referring to computer problems as “exceptions” and “anomalies”, including in a briefing document written by Ms Crichton. The wording was also then used in a briefing note to MPs.

Julian Blake, counsel to the inquiry, asked the retired lawyer: “The wording here that’s being used, is there an element of smoke and mirrors about the whole thing now?”

She replied: “It certainly reads that way”.

Mr Blake said the use of “exception” instead of “bug” was “absolutely Orwellian”.

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The inquiry was also shown correspondence between senior figures about whether to launch a review into alleged cases of theft. An email from Ms Crichton showed she was against a full independent investigation into sub-postmasters who had already been convicted.

She wrote in June 2012: “I do not think that we want to be seen as re-opening cases but rather position this as a review of the existing evidence to enable an understanding of the outstanding concerns and the facts… For those who have not been prosecuted we can offer a full independent investigation”.

Ms Crichton agreed with Mr Blake that her stance had been a “mistake on her part”, and added: “I was too short-sighted maybe”.

She told the inquiry that she “tried to stop prosecutions reliant on Horizon evidence” but left her role as the company’s general counsel in late 2013 as former Post Office chair Alice Perkins had lost confidence in her.

Earlier, Ms Crichton began her evidence with an apology to those affected by the scandal.

“l am truly sorry for the suffering caused to you and your families. I wish that things had been resolved more quickly and again, I’m very sorry that they haven’t been,” she said.

The inquiry continues.