UK public finances show 22 billion-pound spending hole, says finance minister

Rachel Reeves has scrapped the social care cap and curbed winter fuel payments, as well as announcing big cuts to hospital and road projects, as she seeks to plug what she called a £22bn hole in public spending that was “covered up” by the Conservative government.

In a statement to the Commons that mixed detailed economics and partisan politics, the chancellor justified the cuts with the repeated mantra: “If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it.”

Announcing a date for the autumn budget of 30 October, Reeves warned it would “involve taking difficult decisions to meet our fiscal rules across spending, welfare and tax”, paving the way for likely tax increases.

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