Chancellor eyes "targeted, high-value investment in our economic infrastructure"

The Chancellor Philip Hammond today says he will seek "targeted, high-value investment in our economic infrastructure" given uncertainty over the vote to leave the European Union will cause to the economy.

He said in morning interviews that he will continue to "keep the lid" on day-to-day revenue spending, but would be ready to spend more to support the economy during a period of uncertainty, implying additional funding for what he described as "our economic infrastructure," which would make Britain more productive in the long-term.

He accepted predictions that growth will be lowered by leaving the Single Market. And he denied that he was taking an approach similar to the former shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. "We need to have the space to be able to support the economy through [this] period. But we need to do that within a context that makes very clear that we will balance that budget, we will get back to a position of fiscal sustainability."

Labour, he argued, "would not be spending this money on the most productive forms of investment".