Wednesday's papers

The papers are split between the budget and what the Guardian sees as the gravy train.

The paper says that

Gordon Brown's sudden announcement yesterday that he intends to rush through reform of the much-criticised system of MPs expenses came after he was warned by Labour whips that the party would lose support unless he acted within weeks.

The Times believes that

MPs will receive about £150 a day on top of their salaries for attending the Commons in an emergency package of anti-sleaze reforms to be rushed through Parliament.

The Express describes how

Grasping MPs will defy public revulsion at their taxpayer-funded expenses by awarding themselves thousands more – simply for turning up at Westminster.

To the Budget and the Mail reports that Labour was embroiled in an extraordinary row over the cost of the banking crisis with the International Monetary Fund last night.
On the eve of today's Budget, the respected organisation had issued a devastating warning that the catastrophe will cost every person in Britain £3,000.

The Telegraph says that Alistair Darling will be forced in today's Budget to take the Government deficit to levels not seen in decades, as the Chancellor scrambes for measures to pull Britain from its worst recession since the Second World War.

One possible consequence of the budget is on the front of the Sun which proclaims that it

today declares victory in its crusade to boost the crunch-hit motor industry — with a car scrappage scheme in the Budget that also includes vans.

but the paper continues

while White Van Man will be jubilant at the surprise move to extend the scheme to him, the BAD NEWS is that Mr Darling will also announce looming TAX RISES.

Finally the Independent reports that a controversial fertility doctor claimed yesterday to have cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women who had been prepared to give birth to cloned babies.