UK From Black Hole to Spending Spree: Labour’s £22 Billion Dilemma Meets a £725 Billion Promise

[Social Media]

 

From Black Hole to Spending Spree: Labour’s £22 Billion Dilemma Meets a £725 Billion Promise

 

After months of hammering the message that the Conservatives left behind a £22 billion black hole in the public finances, the Labour Party now finds itself navigating a political paradox of its own making. With new spending plans totaling a staggering £725 billion, Labour’s messaging is starting to look like it’s been swallowed by a black hole of its own.

 

Chris Ward, parliamentary private secretary to Sir Keir Starmer, offered a rare behind-the-curtain moment during a candid interview on Times Radio. Usually seen passing notes to Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions, Ward instead appeared on Hugo Rifkind’s Politics Unpacked, where he remarked that PMQs is about “speaking over the heads of the chamber” rather than engaging with questions. “It’s about getting your message out there,” he said. That message, drilled relentlessly into the public ear, has been about the supposed fiscal devastation left behind by the Tories.

 

For over a year, Starmer has barely let an opportunity pass without mentioning the “£22 billion black hole.” At one point, political observers were timing how quickly he could mention it during his opening lines — and he once broke the ten-second mark for the third time. The strategy worked, at least in terms of recognition. The phrase has seeped into public consciousness, even if few could explain precisely what it means. Still, it gave Labour a reason to adopt more austere measures, some of them strikingly un-Labour-like: stripping winter fuel payments, slashing disability benefits, and slicing the foreign aid budget to ribbons — all sacrifices to the looming spectre of that £22 billion fiscal void.

 

Yet the justification for such restraint now looks shaky. Labour’s latest announcements would suggest that not only is the black hole manageable — it’s dwarfed by new ambitions. A £39 billion injection into housebuilding last week was already eyebrow-raising. That alone is nearly two full “black holes.” As the columnist joked, “Imagine — two entire black holes, full of brand new houses. Time for Kirstie and Phil to don their space suits.”

 

Then came Thursday. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones stepped up to the dispatch box and coolly outlined a ten-year infrastructure strategy with a price tag of £725 billion. Schools rebuilt. Hospitals made safe from collapsing concrete. Prisons fixed up. As Jones proclaimed, the government would “break the cycle of deterioration” and “build an NHS fit for the future.” The sheer scale of the funding — even spread over a decade — turned heads. “Seven hundred and twenty five billion!” he declared, with the relish of a darts announcer calling out a perfect 180.

 

But this enthusiasm only highlighted the underlying contradiction. If the £22 billion black hole was as catastrophic as claimed, how can Labour now credibly unveil spending plans over thirty times that size? What once seemed like responsible caution now looks like rhetorical overreach. The fearsome black hole has become a punchline — a number to be easily outshouted by even bigger numbers.

 

Jones, with his eerie resemblance to the blue-haired lawyer from The Simpsons, continued confidently: “We’ve got a clear strategy. We’ve got stability, both politically and economically.” It was said with conviction. And yet, there isn’t a single economist who would argue that the UK economy today is more stable than it was a year ago. Nor did it help that while Jones was making his Commons pitch for long-term planning, the prime minister was reportedly locked in meetings about whether to allow U.S. President Trump to use a British airbase in the Indian Ocean to strike a hidden Iranian nuclear lab.

 

These may not be times suited to decade-long blueprints. But perhaps, as John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” For Labour, those plans now include navigating the awkward leap from austerity to abundance — and explaining how the £22 billion black hole vanished into the void.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from The Times  2025-06-24

 

 

[The Cyclist]

4 hours ago, Social Media said:

But this enthusiasm only highlighted the underlying contradiction. If the £22 billion black hole was as catastrophic as claimed, how can Labour now credibly unveil spending plans over thirty times that size?

 

The £22 Billion black was a pile of horse manure, when it was spouted, just as it is today.

 

The £725 Billion spending splurge is not credible, it is based on assumed growth.

 

Good luck with that 😀😀😀😀

 

Micheal J Fox, went back to the future

 

Labour are taking us back to the 70's.

[David in the north]

The most useless & incompetent government in living memory
A total absence of talent on the front bench & the back benches

[JonnyF]

The 22 Billion was a lie.

 

Just like Rachel from accounts fake CV.

 

 

[The Cyclist]

11 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

The 22 Billion was a lie.

 

Just like Rachel from accounts fake CV.

 

 

 

Just like the fake lawyer.

 

And this for a Justice Secretary 

 

 

 

There probably isn't enough bandwidth to let loose on Starmer.