"I know that some people are suggesting that there was a small surplus that the OBR published on Friday. But if I was on this programme today and I was saying 4bn surplus is fine, there was no economic repair job to be done, I think you would rightly be saying that's not good enough. That would have been the lowest surplus that any chancellor ever delivered against the fiscal rules. I was clear I wanted to build up that resilience, and that is why I took those decisions."
"I wanted to build up the fiscal, economic resilience. The headroom that I had in the spring statement of 9.9bn, I've taken that up to 21.7bn."
Rachel Reeves denied lying about the rationale for raising taxes and insisted that £26bn of tax increases were necessary to build a buffer against fiscal rules and protect public spending. The announced rises increased headroom from £9.9bn at the spring statement to £21.7bn. Prior messaging linked tax rises to an expected downgrade in growth by forecasters, while the Office for Budget Responsibility downgraded productivity but found stronger wage growth and tax receipts more than offset the downgrade. The OBR conclusions triggered political criticism and calls for Reeves's resignation. Keir Starmer plans to defend the chancellor and announce growth measures.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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