Two years after Rachel Reeves made up a “black hole” and sent business confidence plummeting across the country, a REAL fiscal “black hole” has been found - created by the Chancellor herself.
Richard Fuller, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury commented:
This Black hole is unarguable because it’s right there in the Government’s own published figures. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister have tried to pass off a fake Defence Investment “Plan”, but their own numbers show they are short by at least £4.7bn.
And this is important. A decade ago, I joined a few Conservative backbenchers to call on the then-Conservative government to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP. Sadly, we did not succeed.
Now, the drumbeat of war is far louder than it was back then and I desperately want to avoid our country being involved in a war to defend our homeland.
So, the Chancellor and PM leave the stage with the nation wondering where this vital additional money is going to come from.
We do not know if Mr Burnham has an answer, but we do know that making sure we properly fund our defence is the priority for Kemi Badenoch and the Conservative party.
