The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Stabbings in Southport, a £22bn ‘black hole’ and Tory leadership nominations

issue 03 August 2024

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Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said she had found a £21.9 billion hole, and a black one at that, ‘covered up’ by the Tories in the finances Labour inherited. ‘The biggest single cause of the £22 billion fiscal hole was Reeves’s decision to give inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers,’ the Financial Times reported.

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