RISHI Sunak, the new Chancellor, could delay the date of next month's Budget to give himself more time to prepare for his first major fiscal event, Cabinet colleague Grant Shapps has suggested.
The Transport Secretary said ministers had still not been told whether the Budget would go ahead on March 11 as planned after Sajid Javid's shock resignation.
Mr Shapps also sought to downplay what many regard as Mr Javid’s forced departure, stressing how all ministers should be working hand in glove with Downing St and should not be in “different silos”.
He also insisted it was “not correct” to suggest Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief strategist, was running the No 10 show.
READ MORE: Devolved administrations send joint letter to Treasury seeking Budget talks
Mr Cummings and Mr Javid clashed several times in the seven months the Midlands MP was at the helm of the Treasury. The Prime Minister’s key adviser was said to be pressing for the Treasury to turn on the spending taps, which the Chancellor was reluctant to do.
Mr Shapps denied Mr Cummings was now "all powerful" in Whitehall, pointing out how last week's decision to give the go ahead to the HS2 high speed rail link was a project opposed by Mr Johnson’s top aide.
However, Sir Keir Starmer, the frontrunner to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, claimed Mr Cummings was now becoming so powerful that PMQs in the Commons should become “DCQs”.
On Mr Sunak’s set-piece economic statement, Mr Shapps told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "I know the Budget plans are well advanced but I also know Rishi Sunak, the new Chancellor, may want time.
"I haven't heard whether the date of March is confirmed as yet. He is probably looking at it, I should think, this week."
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, has demanded clarity over the date of Budget Day, saying a lack of confirmation was creating increased uncertainty for businesses and others.
"There is no time for them to dither. Rishi Sunak must confirm the date of the Budget as a matter of urgency," insisted the Highland MP.
Mr Sunak, 39, previously the Treasury Chief Secretary, was catapulted into the top job following Mr Javid’s dramatic exit in last week's Cabinet reshuffle.
Speaking on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Shapps said the Government was determined to deliver a "big uplift" for infrastructure spending.
At the same time he said they would be sticking to their manifesto pledge to get debt down over the course of the parliament.
The fiscal rules include not borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and that public sector net investment would not average more than three per cent of GDP, guaranteeing debt would be lower at the end of the five-year Parliament than at the beginning.
The borrowing of up to three per cent of GDP means the Government has £100bn to spend on infrastructure projects over the next five years. But £22bn has already been committed and it is expected that most of the remaining £78bn will be set out in Mr Sunak’s first Budget. Hence, the pressure from within No 10 for the Treasury taps to be turned on, so that more could be spent on, say, health and social care.
"Our manifesto commitments are our commitments,” declared Mr Shapps. “We absolutely intend to stick to the manifesto commitments. For the rest of it, you will need to wait to the Budget," he added.
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