IT WAS the worst kept secret. Pity poor Ken Clarke. This was his moment of glory, the last budget before the general election, and yet everybody knew the details. Even the bookies stopped taking bets on it. What an anti climax!
The Daily Mirror, which received the leaked papers but refused to print them, best summed up the country's reaction to the Chancellor's speech. "Snore, snore, it's a bore, that's why we gave back so eagerly," they chanted.
As the police inquiry continues, Fleet Street has also joined the hunt for the "disgruntled mole" who chose to give "80 per cent" of the budget, and not just the key pages, to a tabloid newspaper.
Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher's former press secretary, described the leak as one of the "most serious and embarrassing" in Whitehall history. "It clearly raises very serious questions," he said. "You have to look at the Civil Service. This is the most spectacular and serious of a number of leaks that occur almost ritually from there."
Unable to keep the smile off his face, Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, nobly claimed he had refused to print the most sensational government leak ever" because he was concerned about its impact on the money markets. He also denied media reports that he had paid £30,000 for it.
Unfortunately as his tabloid rival, the Sun, "exclusively" revealed, Mr Morgan was, in fact, unable to print his scoop because the government immediately obtained a late night High Court injunction preventing any publication after a reporter rang the treasury seeking reaction.
To the surprise of many journalists, Mr Morgan also returned the documents to Downing Street, and Whitehall sources believe they can identify the mole because of "something curious" on the photocopies.
According to sources, Mr Morgan's one condition for returning the budget papers was that Downing Street should publicly thank the Daily Mirror for acting "so responsibly". After a terse statement was duly put out, one of the paper's reporters handed the documents to a Downing Street policeman, telling him: "The Chancellor may need this in the morning."
Interestingly, out of a strawpoll among the leading daily newspaper editors yesterday, only Mr Richard Addis, of the pro Tory Daily Express, stated he would also not have published. But they all said they would not have returned the leaked documents.
Nevertheless, the Daily Mirror, keen to exploit its triumph, yesterday published a two page list of the "great and the good" starting, of course, with Queen Elizabeth congratulating the paper before praising Mr Morgan for his sensitive handling of the issue.
Although the Civil Service insisted its members were innocent, union chief, Mr Barry Reamsbottom, was not surprised by it.
"While I cannot condone leaking information, I can understand why a major leak like this can occur. Civil servants have been treated with contempt by the government. They have faced 17 years of hostility. Whoever leaked these documents felt enough was enough," he said.
Although budget papers are now exempt under the Official Secrets Act because they are classed as economic data, it is made clear to civil servants that they will be sacked if any of the government's economic policies are leaked.
Even if the mole is not identified, some members of the right wing press are determined to uncover all those involved. Yesterday the Daily Mail pointed the finger at Mr Peter Hounam, "a left wing journalist and long time member of the Labour" as being the middle man.
Mr Hounam, a former columnist for the Daily Mirror, indicated that he expected to be interviewed by the police over the matter. "I have heard stories suggesting that I am responsible for helping the Daily Mirror get the documents, but I don't want to comment at this stage."
Workers at a South London print factory are to be questioned over the leak. Last week, staff at the plant, which prints the budget papers, were told half of them will be made redundant following recent privatisation.