UK's Exchequer Hammond: May have to extend austerity measures if needed - Sky News
|The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, spoke on Sky News Sunday morning ahead of his annual budget speech, slated for Monday around 15:30 GMT.
Key highlights
Hammond stated that the UK will need to find a new tax and spending plan, and may have no choice but to extend its current austerity measures if a Brexit deal isn't secured soon with the European Union, despite PM May's pronouncements of "the end of austerity" at the PM's latest party conference speech, but the Exchequer also noted that the UK would be capable of taking whatever fiscal measures were necessary to protect the UK's domestic economy in the event of a no-deal Brexit, though the Bank of England (BoE) may be forced by circumstances to make further changes to interest rates. Hammond neglected to say what direction Britain's central bank would have to move rates in the event of a hard Brexit.
UK PM May also instructed Hammond recently to find an additional £20 billion per year in extra spending, earmarked for vote-buying programs including adult social care, military spending, and fresh injections of cash into the UK's welfare system, and further details will be seen at the Exchequers annual budget speech coming up later today.
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