UK Government announces date for annual budget statement

Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced the date of his next budget statement - which will take place on the 22nd of November.

Chancellor Philip Hammond poses for pictures as he prepares to unveil his Budget plans last year. Picture: Contributed

Mr Hammond announced last November in his Autumn Statement that the policy of having a spring Budget and a follow up Autumn Statement - effectively two finance statements in a single year - would be scrapped.

The Autumn Statement would be done away with entirely, the Chancellor said, and the spring budget would also be moved to later in the year, giving MPs just one financial statement, an Autumn Budget, to pore over.

Mr Hammond’s first budget, delivered in March of this year, was not a success after he was forced into a humiliating climbdown over plans he announced to increase the national insurance contributions paid by self-employed taxpayers.

The former Defence and Foreign Secretary was expected to be moved from Number 11 Downing Street after repeated clashes with Prime Minister Theresa May, but after the Tories snap election gambit backfired, he remained in post.