The Prime Minister, Chancellor and the Office for Budget Responsibility have held crisis talks as concerns continue to grow about the economy.
The meeting reportedly lasted less than an hour, and followed a week of economic turmoil for the UK, as the pound hit record lows, and investors sold off government bonds in their swathes.
Despite calls for the budget plans to be reversed, the PM doubled-down on her tax-cutting policies on Thursday, again claiming that rapid growth is needed to pull the country away from recession.
But economic experts and some Tory MPs have criticised the dichotomy between the tax-cuts, and the Bank of England’s decision to hike interest rates, saying the two economic actions don’t work together.
The OBR’s public statement about the meeting included very little detail, but did reveal that it would share an economic forecast with the Chancellor a week today - which will be based on its “independent judgement about economic and fiscal prospects and the impact of the Government’s policies”.
The Evening Standard’s Economic Expert Stephen King discusses how he thinks the crisis talks went, whether the government will now take the OBR’s forecasts more seriously, and how early backers of the mini-budget are u-turning.
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