UPDATE 1-UK budget deficit hits 5-year high, before election give-aways

* October deficit up 26% to 11.2 bln stg, above all
forecasts
* Year-to-date borrowing higher than for all of 2018/19
* Conservatives and Labour make big election spending
promises

(Adds detail)
By David Milliken and William Schomberg
LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Britain ran a much bigger budget
deficit last month than expected, showing how public borrowing
is already on the rise even before politicians implement any of
the costly spending pledges they have made in the run-up to a
Dec. 12 election.
Borrowing in October alone rose by a quarter compared with a
year earlier to 11.2 billion pounds ($14.5 billion), the Office
for National Statistics said, the highest for any October since
2014 and above all economists' forecasts in a Reuters poll.
Borrowing in the first seven months of the financial year is
now higher than for all of 2018/19 at 46.3 billion pounds, and
is 10% higher than it was for April-October 2018.
After nearly a decade of austerity when the budget deficit
fell from 10% of national income to under 2%, Britain's
Conservative government began last year to loosen the
purse-strings, spending more on health care and public-sector
pay.
This process has gathered pace since Boris Johnson succeeded
Theresa May as prime minister in July, as new finance minister
Sajid Javid announced the biggest increase in public spending in
15 years ahead of the early election.
"Political developments serve as a reminder that the
deterioration in the public finances that we have seen so far
likely marks the tip of the iceberg," Investec economist
Victoria Clarke said.
The opposition Labour Party, who trail the Conservatives in
opinion polls, set out their manifesto on Thursday, promising an
extra 83 billion pounds a year in public spending by 2023/24 - a
10% increase they said would be covered by higher taxes.

On top of this, they plan around 55 billion pounds a year in
investment, which would be funded by higher debt issuance.

Labour also wants to renationalise the electricity network,
rail operators, the Royal Mail and BT's broadband network.
Thursday's data showed a 6.2% year-on-year fall in revenue
from corporation tax in October, the biggest annual drop for
that month in four years.
Overall tax revenues are up by 2.4% so far this year,
compared with a 3.1% rise in day-to-day government spending,
driven by costs for staffing and other goods and services.
As in most other big economies, Britain's level of
government debt is much higher than before the financial crisis.
Public sector net debt totalled 80.4% of GDP in October,
excluding public-sector banks, or 72.2% once the effect of a
temporary Bank of England lending scheme was stripped out too.
Britain's debt-to-GDP ratio was below 40% before the 2008/09
financial crisis.
($1 = 0.7714 pounds)


(Reporting by David Milliken, Editing by William Maclean)