David Vance SubstackRead More
I think there is pretty widespread agreement that UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not tell the truth in the run up to the Budget last week. The OBR has provided prima facia evidence that shows she KNEW there was no £20bn black hole but she and her minions still briefed the media as if things were really dire. This was so they could then increase the tax burden by a further £26bn and use that to bribe her back benchers into keeping her and Starmer in a job! So, in summary, she lied.
EVEN the BBC could not avoid pointing out that there was a “problem” Their chief political editor Chris Mason declared that Reeves was “misleading on one specific point”. He added…
But – and this is the key point – we now know she knew something then she didn’t share with us that morning – and that is that tax receipts were much better than expected and more than offset the reduction in productivity growth. The OBR has since made that very clear and set out the timetable of when it told the Treasury what – including that the chancellor knew about the tax receipts data at the time of the news conference.
To the rest of the world, it is clear. Reeves set out to mislead and she had the full approval of the Prime Minister in this regard. He has come out in full defence of Reeve on Monday. He said that ahead of the budget an OBR review showed that there would be £16bn less than previously estimated.
Yes, that is part of the picture but ONLY part of it. You see is also misleading us and I can prove it. Here is the FULL picture of what was going on?
Yes, there was a £16bn productivity downgrade but alongside that was a £14bn inflation upgrade, a £10bn tax revenue upgrade and £7bn assorted other fiscal advantages, So the TRUTH is that Government was £16bn better off than it was letting on. That’s the truth that Starmer continues to try and cover up.
So he and Reeves are still lying. There is no truth in either of them.
Just a desperate desire to cover up the truth.
These are lying liars and the these are the lies that they tell.
He says the government had made commitments to protect the NHS and public services, cut borrowing costs and improve the cost of living.
“Therefore, against that backdrop, it was inevitable that we would have to raise revenue. So there was no misleading there.”
The prime minister adds that there was a point where he and the chancellor thought they would have to go ahead with a manifesto breach “of some significance”, but that it was not necessary in the end.
