There is nothing new about the £20bn ‘black hole’

Labour’s pro-growth reforms were fun while they lasted. Now here come the tax rises. That’s not quite how Rachel Reeves will convey the findings of the Treasury audit she plans to announce on Monday – but hikes are probably going to be the next step in filling in what the Chancellor will claim is a £20 billion hole in the public finances. 

This multi-billion pound ‘discovery’ is the latest addition to Labour’s narrative, which has been building since before the election. The party wants to claim that when it discovers what’s really been going on inside government, its fiscal decisions will become even more difficult – and this could include some painful (but necessary) tax rises. But there has always been an outstanding problem with this narrative: thanks to a rigorous – and public – assessment of fiscal events by the Office for Budget Responsibility, there is very little left to unearth.