Reeves Accuses Hunt Of £22bn Lie; Nonsense, He Says. What's The Truth?

31st July 2024

Rachel Reeves has accused Jeremy Hunt, her predecessor as chancellor, of lying about the state of the public finances inherited by the Labour government. Hunt has dismissed the claims as "absolute nonsense".

What is the row about?
An audit conducted by the Treasury since Reeves's arrival has identified £35bn of potential overspending by Whitehall departments in the 2024-25 financial year. The government does not expect to have to find all of the money and can use its reserves - a rainy day fund - to cover some of the costs. Even so, that would leave projected departmental spending £21.9bn above the totals set by the Treasury in Hunt's March 2024 budget. Reeves has reduced that figure to £16.4bn by announcing £5.5bn of spending cuts, including the means testing of the winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Larry Elliott at the Guardian explains the issue that has been the focus of debate across newspapers and news programmes. Read it
HERE

Note
The Scottish Government will need to decide if the Winter Fuel payment will continue in Scotland as it is a devolved matter but is affected by changes to the funding following the Rachel Reeves announcement.