Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has told GB News he was “angry” during a Commons showdown with his successor Rachel Reeves yesterday.
The Labour chancellor told MPs that the previous government “continued to make unfunded commitment after unfunded commitment, knowing that the money was not there” as she blamed Hunt and co for a “black hole” in public finances.
Hunt appeared incensed during the lively debate, and admitted to Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello that this was the case.
“I was angry, I will be quite upfront about that. It’s perfectly alright to disagree with good, conservative plans to deal with public finances”, he said.
Jeremy Hunt hit out at Rachel Reeves on GB News
GB NEWS / PARLIAMENT
“But what you can’t do is junk the plans we had in place then blame the black hole on the previous Conservative government.
“We had plans based on public sector productivity. She has just given an inflation-busting £9bn pay award to nearly the entire sector, the unions that helped Labour in the sector.
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“We had plans to tackle the cost of illegal migrants with the Rwanda plan and she has cancelled that, that has crystallised the cost of their most expensive moment.
“We paid Rwanda and got the flights ready, but we hadn’t got any of the savings from the people sent to Rwanda. She does that, then blames it on us.
“The single most pressing thing for most GB News viewers is the soaring welfare bill and welfare has jumped from the King’s Speech. This is a political choice from the Labour government and they should have been upfront about that, not pass the blame along to their predecessors.”
The chancellor announced yesterday a scrapping of the social care cap while curbing winter fuel payments.
Jeremy Hunt joined Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello on GB News
GB NEWS
She also announced big cuts to hospital and road projects, citing efforts to plug what she called a £22bn hole in public spending that the Conservatives “covered up”.
In a statement to the Commons, she repeated the mantra: “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it.”
Reeves went on to announcing a date for the autumn budget of 30 October, warning it would “involve taking difficult decisions to meet our fiscal rules across spending, welfare and tax”, hinting tax increases are inbound.
Hunt blasted the announcement on GB News, branding the so-called black hole “fictitious”.
Rachel Reeves has confirmed the date of the Budget PA“She knew she would cancel the Rwanda system and she knew she wasn’t going to ask for productivity improvements for inflation-busting payments to the public sector”, he said.
“She didn’t make any provision for the cost to the public purse in doing so. She’s trying to make this fictitious black hole so when she raises taxes, as she will have to do in autumn, she can blame the Conservative government.
“I don’t think people will buy that for one second. Nearly every independent economist was talking about the pressures on public finances. We had a good plan to deal with those, she didn’t.”
Reeves told MPs that she was aware of the difficult financial position Labour would be inheriting, but a number of nasty surprises have emerged.
“Upon my arrival at the Treasury three weeks ago, it became clear that there were things that I did not know, things that the party opposite covered up; covered up from the opposition, covered up from this house, covered up from the country,” she said.
