Reeves sets out plan to deal with £22bn hole in public finances
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there was a £22 billion black hole in the public finances as she accused the Tories of covering up the scale of the problems.
In a statement to Parliament she set out “immediate action” to address the issues she said had been uncovered by the audit ordered by Labour when it took office.
Inheritance
She told MPs: “Before the election, I said that we would face the worst inheritance since the Second World War.
“Taxes at a 70-year high, debt through the roof, an economy only just coming out of recession.
“I knew all of these things. I was honest about them during the campaign.”
But, she added there were things the Tories had “covered up from the country”.
She said there was a “£22 billion hole in the public finances now, not in the future, but now”.
In a statement to Parliament the Chancellor said:
– A Budget on October 30 will involve “difficult decisions” on spending, welfare and tax.
– The projected overspend by the previous Tory government on the asylum system, including the “failed” Rwanda plan, was more than £6.4 billion for this year alone.
– Winter fuel payments will be restricted to those on pension credits or other means-tested benefits.
– Ministers will accept in full the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies, saying this is the “right decision for the people who work in, and most importantly, the people who use our public services”.
– Meeting the recommendations means a £9 billion unfunded overspend, which she has asked Government departments to help fund by finding savings of at least £3 billion – including by stopping non-essential spending on consultancy and communications.
– The Government has agreed a pay offer to junior doctors, the Chancellor has confirmed, amid reports this would be more than 20% over two years.
– Rishi Sunak’s Advanced British Standard will be scrapped, as the former prime minister “didn’t put aside a single penny to pay for it”.
– Adult social care charging reforms delayed by the Tories will not be taken forward, saving more than £1 billion by the end of next year.
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So slime ball Hunt saying she is lying the choice of who you believe Tory or Labour it would and should be Labour its in Tory D N A to lie and blame others Hunt is the man that wrecked the N H S and as Chancellor along with his boss Sunak who was the chancellor wrecked the economy aided by the idiot LOOOOONY Liz Truss and her Chancellor but the thing that sticks in my mind is the HEATING ALLOWENCE there is no way a labour government would take that away from pensioners if things where as the Tories… Read more »
Disregard the Tories as they now belong to history. It is true that they handed Labour a dogs dinner but there again that happened too in 2010. The fact remains that knocking off the Winter Fuel Allowance is an easy steal. It affects loads of pensioners who may not be claiming any credits but whose income from State and small works pensions hardly adds up to “wealth”. What will it take for Labour to address the real fly in the ointment – the profit taking price gouging antics of the major energy suppliers who have had a field day since… Read more »
Welcome to a labour government UK. Cutting payment to pensioners, who’s next???
Feeling the smack of firm gummint yet, fellow pensioners? We will, we will…
Thanks, Ms Reeves, for that gratuitous, small and mean withdrawal of our Winter Fuel Allowance.
Change? Huh? When?
“Change the Chancellor”
(“Change the one-term PM” will have to wait).
For a woman credited with being “in touch” she revealed a rather mean spirited side with yesterday’s statement. Yet no mention of getting to grips with the cavalier attitudes of domestic energy suppliers who engage in all sorts of deception to enable sheltering of profits. Guess she’s too well in with the upper echelons of the City and international business who see consumers as a herd to be cleaned out.