Sajid Javid cancels Budget after Boris Johnson pushes for December general election
2 min read
Sajid Javid has cancelled plans to hold his first Budget as Chancellor next month after Boris Johnson announced he wants an election in December.
A Treasury source said the economic set piece would be put off after the Prime Minister effectively admitted the UK would not be leaving the EU on October 31.
Mr Johnson said he will table a motion for an early election for Monday with a potential polling day of December 12.
It comes after he appeared to accept the Article 50 deadline will be extended to January 2020 after he failed to get his Brexit deal passed through Parliament.
The Programme Motion for his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) was defeated in the Commons on Tuesday night, meaning the legislation would not have the time to get into law before the end of the month.
Mr Javid had previously announced he was set to hold a Budget after the UK exited on Halloween under the terms of the WAB.
Speaking to ITV's Peston programme on Wednesday he insisted it would go ahead, saying: “There will be a budget. The budget is on track.
"When I announced the date, November 6, the only situation where there won't be a budget would be if there was a no-deal outcome - now we can't rule that out at this point, but we're on track to have a Budget."
Speaking after the PM was defeated in the Commons, he said despite that the Budget remained as planned.
Adding: “When it comes to Brexit, we are working as much and as hard as we can to still do that on October 31, despite what happened in Parliament.”
But after Mr Johnson said on Thursday the way out of the impasse was to give Parliament more time to scrutinise the legislation, but to also agree to an election on December 12, the Chancellor decided to shelve those plans.
A Treasury source said: "Parliament has voted for a delay.
“We're calling for an election, so we won't be delivering the Budget on November 6."
Instead Mr Javid is now set to wait until after the outcome of the snap poll before setting out his spending plans for the following year.
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