THE UK slumped to its worst trade deficit on record in June, according to official figures which show Chancellor George Osborne's vision of a "Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers" is far from the reality .

Goods exports plummeted from £25.6 billion in May to £23.45bn in June, the latest seasonally-adjusted figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

This was the key factor in the UK's total deficit on goods and services trade jumping from £2.72bn to £4.31bn – the widest since comparable records began in 1997.

The trade deficit will make further miserable reading for Mr Osborne, with the UK having plunged back into recession amid his economic austerity.

Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, described the June trade figures as "pretty dreadful".

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said the figures were "exceptionally disappointing".

He added: "Hopes that net trade could boost overall economic activity have proved to be horribly misplaced in the first half of 2012, and prospects currently hardly look great for the third quarter given the on-going serious problems in the eurozone and softer economic activity elsewhere."

The Bank of England on Wednesday forecast the UK economy would broadly stagnate in 2012 as a whole.

At the time of Mr Osborne's first Budget in June 2010, at which he hiked the scale of annual public spending cuts and tax hikes planned by 2014/15 by £40bn to £113bn, the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted growth of 2.8% this year.

Mr Osborne is facing a growing clamour to change course.

The UK's trade deficit totalled a yawning £11.2bn in the second quarter. This was up sharply from a deficit of £7.85bn in the three months to March.

Economists highlighted the fact that it was the goods trade deficit with non-European Union countries which was particularly bad, rising from £3.88bn in May to £5.18bn in June.

Exports of goods to the USA dropped by £341m month-on-month in June to £3.26bn. Goods exports to China dropped by £172m to £846m.

The goods trade deficit with European Union countries widened from £4.48bn in May to £4.94bn in June.

Exports to Germany rose between May and June, but sales to the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden showed sharp falls.

The grim trade figures chime with gross domestic product data which revealed last month that the UK economy contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter. This was the UK's third straight quarter of contraction and the 0.7% fall in GDP marked a significant deepening of the double-dip recession.

The ONS said that the trade data "may have been affected by the changed pattern of public holidays" around the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

However, economists highlighted underlying weakness.

Ms Redwood said: "The extra bank holiday in June may have had some temporary adverse effect. That said, if the extra bank holiday halted work at ports, it should have affected both exports and imports. And previous extra bank holidays have not had that big an impact. In June 2002, the month of the Golden Jubilee, the deficit widened by only £0.4bn."

Exports of UK services edged up from £15.5bn in May to £15.8bn in June.

UK imports of goods and services fell from £43.8bn in May to £43.5bn in June.

Mr Archer said this third monthly fall in UK imports "points to soft domestic demand". He noted UK exporters had to cope in July with sterling trading at a near-three-year high on a trade-weighted basis against a basket of currencies.