The new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is pulling no punches about the £22 billion fiscal black hole that she has inherited from the previous Tory government.

She is fuming about the parlous state of the public finances. In a Commons speech, she exposed the scale and seriousness of the problem. It is much worse than anyone had predicted.

“They exhausted the reserve. They put party before country. They continued to make unfunded commitment after unfunded commitment.”

The claim that Labour have inherited the worst set of economic circumstances since the Second World War may appear to be over-egging the pudding, but the financial picture is dire. Taxes are at record high levels, public services are in decay and economy is flatlining.

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The scale and depth of this crisis means we are in for a bumpy ride. Tough choices cannot be dodged.

Against the backdrop of this Tory wreckage, Reeves has controversially announced that she will end the winter fuel payment for those not on pension credit. Ending allowances for 10 million pensioners is estimated to save almost £3bn.

© The Irish News