Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt rejected on Tuesday his successor Rachel Reeves' comments on the Tories' tax regime, in which she accused the previous government of misleading the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
"We never promised that we would deliver tax cuts in the autumn. And we were very, very clear about the timescale," he told Sky News. Talking about the £22 billion black hole remark, Hunt insisted that the government at the time looked to reduce costs through dealing with illegal migration. As the Home Office warned the authorities that the asylum bill could be up to £11 billion a year by 2026, "we had a plan to deal with it," referring to the Rwanda plan. "What Labour did was they cancelled that plan on day one," and due to that, the money was spent without any benefits, he explained.
"So the asylum budget is going to go up because of what Labour has decided to do," Hunt concluded.
