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General election 2024 live: Cleverly quizzed on Conservative Party's national service plan - BBC News General election 2024 live: Cleverly quizzed on Conservative Party's national service plan - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Dharshini David BBC Verify
Chief economics correspondent Anthony Reuben
The shadow chancellor has laid out pledges of spending injections Earlier on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she showed James
for some services and tax changes. But how soon might a budget happen if Cleverly figures stating that knife crime in England and Wales was up by 7%.
Labour won? The Home Secretary responded that “if you take Labour-run
During her appearance on Laura Kuenssberg's programme, Rachel Reeves repeated that there’d be a “fiscal lock”. London out of the equation, then that figure would be down”, and he pointed his
This means any finger down.
significant and permanent tax and spending changes would require a full He wrote a letter to the Mayor of London in January making
accompanying forecast from the independent Office for Budget the same point – saying that if London was taken out of the figures, there
Responsibility, the OBR. would have been a slight overall reduction in knife crime in England and Wales.
For that, normally, the OBR needs ten weeks notice. It was true then for the year to the end of September 2023,
And it is not allowed but since he wrote that letter, the figures for the whole of 2023 have been released, and it no longer seems to be the case.
to scrutinise the plans of a party while it’s in opposition. Knife crime in England and Wales was up 7% in 2023, while it was up 22% in Metropolitan Police areas. In England and Wales excluding London,
So even if the OBR it was up by 3%, according to the Office for National Statistics.
started an initial broader evaluation of the economy now, it would still likely But for statistical reasons, those official figures exclude
need many weeks after the election to comprehensively incorporate and Greater Manchester Police areas, so we can’t say for sure.
evaluate those policies, if Labour is to follow through on its commitment for a
full process.
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