Autumn Statement stimulus 'would incite Brexit panic'

The UK’s international trade secretary seems to be the Cabinet heavyweight who the contractor sector should have lobbied to get the Autumn Statement boost it wants; not the chancellor.

In fact, it is Liam Fox who is reportedly against any economic stimulus on November 23^rd, at odds with Philip Hammond who is expected to unveil £20billion in new infrastructure spending.

But the chancellor going on a spending spree next month will make voters think there is a reason to panic over Brexit, the Sunday Times reported ‘Brexiter’ Mr Fox as having privately told Tories last week.

“There is no need for any economic stimulus in the Autumn Statement,” the paper also quoted Mr Fox as saying. “The last thing we need is a George Osborne-style emergency Budget. We want a steady-as-she-goes Autumn Statement.”

Resembling his predecessor is demonstrably not Mr Hammond’s aim, although shoring up Britain’s position to weather potential uncertainties from Brexit would appear to fit with the chancellor’s apparently ‘risk-adverse’ nature.

Such action seems likely given that, privately, Mr Hammond is reported to have calculated that UK growth next year without some stimulus could be a meagre 0.8%.

This compares unfavourably to both a predicted 2.2% in March 2016 and a 2.5% growth rate that he is said to have forecast, personally, had Britain voted to stay in the EU.

While these private calculations will reinforce the ‘accountant’ label that the chancellor has been given, they indicate a level of preparation that was not always present during David Cameron’s premiership.

Speaking to Radio 4, the then-prime minister’s head of communications Ameet Gill admitted that the government’s now in force pledge to block tax rises until 2020 was one of the “dumbest” economic policies ever.

Mr Gill told the BBC’s Week in Westminster: “We kind of cooked it up on the hoof a couple of days before, because we had a hole in the grid and we needed to fill it.”