Rachel Reeves has unveiled a raft of spending cuts after claiming to have found a £22bn 'black hole' in the public finances. She tells Sky News her predecessor Jeremy Hunt 'covered up from the House of Commons and from the country the true state of the public finances'.
Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt is asked if he and the Conservative Party misled the electorate in promising a raft of tax cuts during the election, given the state of the public finances.He rejects the charge, saying: 'We never promised that we would deliver tax cuts in the autumn. And we were very, very clear about the timescale.'He says any further tax cuts would have been delivered next year through measures like welfare reform and cuts in the public sector.
Asked if Rishi Sunak pushed him to go further on tax cuts ahead of the election than he was able to deliver, he replies that the pair 'agreed' that economies grow faster with lower taxes.'We had to put taxes up because of the pandemic. But we needed to do the hard work to bring them down.'It's possible that interest rates could be cut later this week, and we conclude by asking Mr Hunt if he wishes the election had been called later.
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