Budget 2018: No 10 says no deal Brexit no threat to extra spending, despite Hammond implying otherwise – Politics live

Rolling coverage of Philip Hammond’s budget announcement, with reaction and analysisNumber 10: Brexit won’t affect spending plansThink tanks: Ending austerity will cost up to £31bn 1.49pm GMT Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem MP who was mental health minister in the coalition government, is not impressed by the extra spending on mental health in the budget, worth an extra £2bn in real terms by 2023/24. In a statement he said:For all the government’s spin, this £2bn falls well short of the amount experts say is needed to deliver vital improvements to services and achieve real equality between mental and physical health. Today’s announcement also recycles commitments set out in the coalition government’s blueprint for children’s mental health, which pledged a named mental health lead in schools as well as a dedicated professional in specialist NHS services. The Conservatives have failed to drive these changes through nearly five years on. Why should we expect things will be any different this time around? 1.23pm GMT Philip Hammond got a significant boost earlier this month when Britain’s fiscal watchdog reported that tax receipts were rather stronger than it expected this year. That means a £13bn increase to Hammond’s fiscal firepower, which could help fund some spending for the NHS, or fix some of the problems with the benefits system.The cost of ending austerity depends on how you define it – stopping further per capita cuts in day-to-day departmental spending from next year will cost £26.3bn by 2022-23. More in this report https://t.co/Jfn6rz456T pic.twitter.com/guhsUqQMka Continue reading…
Via: Budget 2018: No 10 says no deal Brexit no threat to extra spending, despite Hammond implying otherwise – Politics live