By October 31 the OBR told Reeves that she was actually sitting on a £4.2 billion surplus. Yet four days later she gave a press conference in Downing Street at which she suggested that the watchdog’s forecasts were worse than expected and made the case for tax rises.
It appears the country was deliberately misled to try to explain away Labour’s decision to spend billions more on welfare. Not only did the Chancellor let it be known that the OBR were forecasting lower productivity - forecasts which are meant to remain confidential until the Budget - but she failed to mention the fact that other changes to their forecasts “more than offset” the impact, in the OBR’s own words.
Am I right in thinking that the pesky economy is actually doing quite well? If true, who do I praise?
