Political budget: British chancellor Gordon Brown delivered an intensely political budget yesterday, drawing dividing lines with the Conservatives for a future general election campaign in which he expects to lead the British Labour Party.

Generally judged "neutral" if not economically insignificant, Mr Brown made education the centrepiece of what he termed "a budget for Britain's future, to secure fairness for every child and invest in every child".

However the consensus at Westminster was that his 10th budget statement had as much to do with Mr Brown's own future, as he warmed Labour hearts with a pledge to bring "investment" per pupil in state schools up to today's private school levels.

In a direct challenge to Conservative leader David Cameron, Mr Brown dismissed Tory proposals to "share" the proceeds of economic growth, insisting he would always favour "investment" over tax cuts.

"Our long-term aim should be to ensure for 100 per cent of our children the educational support now available to just 10 per cent," the chancellor declared to Labour cheers, confirming that education spending would rise from £5.6 billion (€8.09 billion) to £8 billion over the next five years.

And there was more than a hint of the chancellor as prime-minister-in-waiting as he pledged more of the proceeds of his "prudent" stewardship for parents receiving child tax credits, pensioners travelling on national bus routes off-peak, first-time property buyers, women with low skills and those suffering pay discrimination, and athletes training for the 2012 Olympics - as well as for the armed forces serving in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.

With prime minister Tony Blair sitting alongside him on the government front bench, the often dour Mr Brown even risked a joke about the subject on most MPs' minds - his own future career prospects.

Declaring it "a great honour and privilege to deliver a 10th budget," Mr Brown reminded MPs that the last chancellor to deliver 10 budgets in a row was Nicholas Vansitart in 1822.

"In order to win the house's indulgence to be able to deliver so many budgets, he did, of course, have to agree to abolish income tax," said Mr Brown.

He prompted laughter across the chamber when he added: "I regret to inform the house this is a precedent I do not intend to follow For Mr Vansitart being chancellor was preparation for his next important position in government - chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster."

But even as MPs on all sides wondered if this would be Mr Brown's final budget before succeeding Mr Blair, Mr Cameron was already dismissing him as "an analogue politician in a digital age".

With left-wing Labour MPs horrified by Mr Brown's planned extension of private finance initiatives to fund schools and hospitals, Mr Cameron accused the chancellor of "mortgaging the country's future", squandering "billions of pounds" without delivering public service reform, increasing the tax burden to record levels, and raising debt equivalent to £6,000 per household by way of planned government borrowing of £175 million over the next six years.

In a highly personal attack Mr Cameron declared Mr Brown "an old fashioned tax and spend chancellor", telling him: "You are the past."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell also joked about Mr Brown's future ambitions, saying his enthusiasm about his 10th budget showed the chancellor's "affinity to the Number 10".