Where does the 拢22bn black hole come from?published at 10:10 Greenwich Mean Time
By Anthony Reuben
The starting point for the tax rises expected in Wednesday鈥檚 Budget is the 拢22bn 鈥渂lack hole鈥 in the public finances.
We first saw that figure in a government publication in July, shortly after Labour came to office.
It does contain overspends for the current year, which the government can reasonably claim not to have known about, and there is a report due from the Office for Budget Responsibility on Wednesday about how that could have happened.
But there are also things that the government says need extra funding that organisations, such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, say it should have known about during the election campaign.