Jeremy Hunt’s ‘dubious’ financial planning lacks credibility, says IFS

Chancellor should resist temptation to announce unfunded tax cuts in March budget, advises leading thinktank

Jeremy Hunt’s financial planning is “dubious” and “lacks credibility” and the chancellor should not announce tax cuts in next week’s budget if he cannot lay out how he will fund them, an economic thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that Hunt would need to find £35bn of cuts from already threadbare public services if he plans to use a Whitehall spending freeze to pay for pre-election giveaways.