Budget 2015: From 108 mentions of tax to the number of 'billions' - Osborne's speech in stats

From 108 mentions of tax to four sips of water, these are the bookmakers' best guesses for the Budget in numbers

Britain's Chancellor George Osborne stands with the traditional red dispatch box outside his official residence at 11 Downing Street in London, prior to unveiling the budget

How many times will the Chancellor sip water or say the word tax? A look at the numbers behind the pre-election Budget as guessed by the bookmakers

31

Number of seconds between George Osborne uttering the word tax, bookies say. Osborne’s 2010 Budget was known as the ‘emergency’ budget because it came in at a time of financial crisis when the deficit drastically needed to be address. Successive budgets since have been all about that deficit – a problem Osborne has sought to address with what is predicted to be the most popular word this year: ‘tax’.

108

Total number of time George Osborne is expected to say the word tax. Inheritance tax, a ‘Google tax’ and cuts to beer duty have already been leaked in the run up to the speech.

Read more: What we already know about beer duty and the 'Google Tax'

56

Number of minutes Osborne’s speech is expected to last – just slightly longer than Disraeli’s shortest speech, which took only 45 minutes in 1867.

4:45

Number of hours and minutes of the longest Budget speech, belonging to Gladstone in 1853. Gladstone drank sherry and a beaten egg to keep his stamina up, making use of a rule that Chancellors can drink alcohol during the announcement (no other member of Parliament is allowed to do this). Disraeli sipped brandy and water in the 1850s and 1860s while Lord Lawson opted for gin and tonic in the 1980s.

4

Number of times Osborne is expected to sip water during the speech – down from eight in 2012, according to Sporting Index. He follows Gordon Brown, who turned the budget into a more sober affair with a bottle of natural Scottish mineral water.

29

Number of times the Chancellor will say ‘billion’ – he’s only expected to say ‘million’ 18 times in comparison. In a recent interview with Andrew Marr, Osborne lived up to this prediction. He said: “The £30 billion of savings that are required, the £13 billion of that that can come from Government departments, the £12 billion from saving money on welfare, the £5 billion from making sure we tackle tax avoidance and evasion and aggressive tax planning.”

3

Number of mentions of the ‘euro’. Osborne's Conservative party has pledged to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union if it wins a majority in the forthcoming general election.