UK Treasury refuses to disclose key details of £22bn fiscal ‘black hole’

https://www.ft.com/content/7f686444-7036-4efc-82c5-971b0f3929fa

Posted by abovethecloud5

29 Comments

  1. “The UK Treasury is refusing to provide key details of the £22bn fiscal “black hole” that chancellor Rachel Reeves claims to have discovered, with officials insisting they need more time to ensure the figures are accurate.“

    Good to know they won’t be stating this figure a lot before making sure it’s accurate! Oh.

  2. Is it because a decent portion of it due to public sector above inflation pay rises they brought in during their first weeks in charge? Or is it because they plucked the figure out of the air and it’s a bunch of fucking lies?

    I thought this lot were all about transparency and trust?

  3. So much for transparency then. And if they need to confirm the accuracy, Starmer shouldn’t have been repeating it every chance he’s had.

  4. Good to know we have a chancellor willing to roll out sweeping, devastating austerity like the Tories on steroids before the Treasury have even validated the figures. I was beginning to panic.

  5. CheesyBakedLobster on

    Nothing burger story. Treasury can shift spending around government departments so prematurely releasing an itemised detail as to which are to be labelled as overspend is of course going to be resisted while the negotiations between government departments are ongoing.

  6. Because we all the the elephant in the room, and that cost keeps climbing with no signs of stopping but they also can’t highlight that or you end up proving the so called “Far-Right” correct

  7. I find it hard to believe that Rachel Reeves has discovered a £22B black hole above the hundreds of economists and financial experts within the civil service.

  8. So in other words, it was all that money Labour spunked up the wall five minutes after entering office.

  9. Why is anyone surprised? They were a shit opposition party, one of the worst in modern times.

    Only got in because the previous government was so poor they were pretty much unelectable, not because they were exceptional or people believed a word they were saying

  10. I suggest listening to the More or Less Podcast, which covers the details and what was *revealed* , what wasn’t, but was perhaps predictable and what wasn’t.

  11. GlutenFreeBreadSucks on

    Labour are going to absolutely ransack the country under the guise of “well at least we’re not tories”

  12. This country is more authoritarian each day. How can the treasury “refuse” to disclose these details? It’s our fucking money

  13. disordered-attic-2 on

    So the second document Labour are refusing to share as it makes them look bad.

    Your new government, same as your old government.

  14. Capital-Wolverine532 on

    if true, the OBR wasn’t doing its job. But I doubt Labour are telling the truth. Who finds £22bn black hole but spend £9bn on inflation busting pay rises for the unions?

  15. John Mcdonald said the real figures were closer to 80 billion in his speech before the pensions vote. Either way, there was much funnelling of taxpayers’ revenues into private equity, A PPE scandal, plenty of foreign fact-finding missions. There were some very nice lunches, Rwandan scam and a few peerages at the end , nice.

  16. Calling it a “black hole” makes it seem as if the money has just disappeared. It hasn’t. It was taken

  17. If you have a black hole you need to fill you don’t spend around £10b on overseas net zero projects and pay rises that come to around £10b. With these 2, they’ve either created the black hole or doubled it.

  18. How about the amount they gave away for dealing with non existent climate crisis and the huge public sector pay rises

  19. Because its mythical number that the goverment want people to believe. Keep sayin it enough times and hope it sticks like glue with working families.

    But lets break it down.

    11 billion given overseas
    9 billion to public sector pay rises
    3 billion to ukraine.

    Thats your blackhole.

  20. ThatGuyMaulicious on

    I mean this all but confirms that Labour are hiding something behind this black hole. Just like they are hiding something behind the ideological move to cut winter fuel from pensioners.

    Either that black hole isn’t even there or Labour have fisted the country with it.

  21. Jesus, let’s all grumble at labour who have been in power, what, 2 months?

    Not the Tories who were in power for 14 years?

    Let’s wait 5 minutes before screaming for a change.

  22. Reeves and Starmer don’t know anything about economics.  They will wreck the country, they are a giant version of the SNP, useless and dangerous.