What an outrageous statement by Rachel Reeves today.
Completely disingenuous, and shameless in trying to blame the previous government for the choices she is now making.
As Shadow Chancellor she knew full well that there wasn't a huge amount of money to go round. UK public finances are an open book. To any capable Shadow Chancellor the state of the public finances should never be a surprise. You can read it all in Treasury and OBR statements. But furthermore, Rachel Reeves had additional privileged access to senior Treasury Civil Servants before the election. Surely they discussed public finances?
The reason the new Labour government is in a difficult position is because during the election they made unfunded spending commitments and then today made even more.
Today they made the choice to award above inflation pay increases while taking money away from pensioners.
AgeUK have already called Labour's plans to remove Winter Fuel payments from some pensioners 'a social injustice'.
Is this the 'changed' Labour party we are starting to see?
Government is about choices - and choices in government are often difficult.
Unless of course - as many of us suspected all along - they go back on their promise and increase taxes after all.
As Jeremy Hunt said today:
"The chancellor will fool absolutely no one with a shameless attempt to lay the ground for tax rises she didn't have the courage to tell us about."
We will see in the Autumn Budget what further surprises they have in store for us. Despite inflation now being at target and the UK economy growing faster than any other G7 nation I suspect it won't be pretty.
