Chancellor Rachel Reeves does not rule out emergency budget

The chancellor of the exchequer has not explicitly ruled out the possibility holding an emergency budget given the opportunity to do so today.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon, Conservative MP Nick Timothy asked Rachel Reeves: “Can she rule out any new tax rises or departmental spending cuts in the march statement, or will the fiscal forecast become an emergency budget?”

The chancellor responded: “We have committed to have just one budget per year to provide businesses with the certainty that they need to invest, so we will have an update from the OBR in March.”

“We have set out the fiscal rules that we will balance day to day spending with tax receipts and we will get debt down as a share of GDP within the forecast period, and we will continue at all times to meet those fiscal rules.”

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