Watch: OBR denies review legitimises Labour’s £22bn claim

Rachel Reeves’s fiscal statement has been and gone but the fallout from today’s Budget is still being assessed. One rather interesting element of the Chancellors’ speech this afternoon concerns the Labour government’s claim that the Conservatives left a £22bn blackhole in the economy after the party’s 14 years in government. Despite shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt and outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak vehemently denying this is accurate, Reeves insisted to the House today that she will publish a ‘line by line’ analysis of her claim.

On the topic of publications, the OBR has been no great ally to Starmer’s army. It released a review of its own today on the contents of Reeves’s budget – and reached some rather damning conclusions. Not only has the organisation suggested that 60 per cent of the cost of the hike to employers’ national insurance will be passed onto ‘workers and consumers’ next year, it predicts that, the following year, three-quarters of the rise is likely to affect workers through lower wages.