(3 months, 3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberI thank my hon. Friend for that question; I am pleased to have her as a constituency neighbour in Leeds. She is absolutely right that the previous Government went into the election knowing that there was a £22 billion black hole. What did they do during that election? They made more unfunded spending commitments and more unfunded promises about tax that they knew they could not keep. That was deeply irresponsible. After all the damage that they have done, they should have come to the Chamber today and apologised.
Would the Chancellor confirm that all the information presented today was not known to her before last Thursday, when the estimates were laid?
When I arrived at the Treasury three weeks ago, I asked Treasury officials to do a full analysis. We concluded that analysis over the weekend and I am publishing it today for the House of Commons.