Hunt will ‘salt ground’ with spending traps for Labour in Budget, Starmer claims

Sir Keir Starmer believes the Conservatives will “salt the ground” for Labour by using the Budget to set spending traps ahead of a likely election defeat.

The Labour leader claimed the Tories had already briefed that the Autumn Statement was designed as “a series of traps”, showing Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are “acting in party interest” while “neglecting the national interest”.

Last month, i reported that the Prime Minister and Mr Hunt were considering setting an overall “envelope” spending review to follow an election that will dictate the amount of funding available for public services.

On Tuesday, Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) boss Richard Hughes sharply criticised projected public spending, describing it as a “work of fiction” because “the Government hasn’t even bothered to write down what its departmental spending plans are underpinning the plans for public services”.

Independent experts have predicted that under the probable path of public spending after April 2025, most Whitehall departments will face real-terms spending reductions in order to ensure that the Government can keep its promises to increase funding for health, schools and defence.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his latest campaigning “missions tour”, Mr Starmer said: “I think it’s very obvious that they’re trying to salt the ground.

“So they’re not acting in the national interest, they’re acting in party interest.

“They brief the Autumn financial statement out as a series of traps for Keir Starmer and the Labour Party.

“Now, take my leader of the Opposition hat off – that means they have totally neglected the national interest.

“They’re not even pretending that they’re making decisions in the best interest of the country. They’re making decisions in the best interest as they say, of the Tory Party and their best chance of creating divides into the election. That’s why we’re in this mess.”

The Labour leader also insisted his party was emphasising the need to spend more on public services than the Tories, after a YouGov poll suggested 62 per cent of voters would rather spend spare public cash on improving public services than the tax cuts planned by the Tories.

Highlighting anew £100m youth programme to tackle knife crime, funded by scrapping VAT relief for private schools, Mr Starmer said: “I did see the poll, whether the Chancellor read the poll or what he makes of it remains to be seen and we’ll see what the Budget brings in early March.

“But we do think more support should be put in, and we’re prepared to say how much and where the money is going to come from.

“But there’s no doubt that after 14 years, our public services are in a much worse position than they were at the start.

“And there’s a basic rule in politics as far as I’m concerned, which is whichever party you are, if you leave your country worse than when you found it, that is unforgivable.

“And that’s the position we’re in a moment.”

The top civil servant in the Treasury has rejected comments by the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), in which Richard Hughes suggested that public spending forecasts last year were a “work of fiction”.

Appearing before the Treasury Committee, James Bowler, the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, said:
“You set out your spending plans, we have a three year spending plan, they’re due to finish in just over a year’s time and then you have an assumption as to what spending will be thereafter.
“That’s not a new, nothing’s changed in that, so I don’t particularly recognise that there’s anything different.
“It’s very good that we have multi-year spending plans.”

The Treasury has been approached for comment.