Budget 2017 live - key points: Tories pivot to public spending in bid to keep out Corbyn
Follow all the latest updates as Chancellor presents his 2017 Budget
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Your support makes all the difference.Welcome to The Independent’s liveblog with coverage of the response to Philip Hammond’s Budget.
The Chancellor was forced to admit that growth and productivity forecasts had been downgraded, with the Official for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicting lower growth than at any time in its history.
It comes after the UK’s finances unexpectedly worsened last month after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector net borrowing – stripping out state-owned banks – jumped by £500m to £8bn in October.
Despite this, Mr Hammond used the Budget to announce a splurge of new investment, including £3bn set aside for preparing for Brexit, an immediate £350m cash boost for the NHS, a £2.5bn investment fund and £500m support for the tech industry. This can partly be seen as a response to Labour's shock performance at the polls earlier this year, which has forced the Tories to do more to address rising anger at inequality, and try to quell support for Jeremy Corbyn.
Follow the 2017 Budget as it happened below
A series of small giveaways had earlier been trailed by the Treasury, including extending discount railcards to 25-30 year-olds from next Spring and tackling overpayments of student loans.
This was a Budget in which Mr Hammond could not afford any major slip-ups. Tory MPs were nervous of a repeat of the excruciating U-turn on a key announcement in the Budget in Spring, where the Chancellor was forced to pull the plug on his plan to raise taxes for the self-employees through increased national insurance contributions after considerable pressure from Conservative MPs.
If there is any repeat of this, Mr Hammond's position in Number 11 will be very precarious indeed.
Sterling has remained stable ahead of Philip Hammond's statement. Kit Juckes, a currency strategist at French bank Societe Generale, says that for the pound, there’s a good chance that the Budget will be a “non-event”.
“Sterling’s still very cheap and still reacts more to good than to bad news as a result. Today may just bring confirmation that the Chancellor has very little room for fiscal handouts,” he writes in a note to clients, which is creatively headlined “When Phil got there, the cupboard was bare....”
Philip Hammond will promise to help build a "Global Britain" when he stands up in the Commons at around 1pm. Here's part of what we expect him to say:
“In this Budget, we express our resolve to look forwards, to embrace change, to meet our challenges head on, and to seize the opportunities for Britain.
“Because for the first time in decades, Britain is genuinely at the forefront of a technological revolution, not just in our universities and research institutes, but this time in the commercial development labs of our great companies and on the factory floors and business parks across the land.
“So we must invest to secure a bright future for Britain, and at this Budget that is what we choose to do.”
Could this Budget be the last Damian Green will take part in as Deputy Prime Minister? The staunch Theresa May ally is under investigation by the Cabinet Office over allegations, which he denies, that he used work computers to store pornography.
According to The Times, Downing Street is lining up Michael Gove to take Mr Green's place if he is forced to quit. It would mark a spectacular return for the current Environment Secretary - Ms May's Cabinet nemesis during her time in the Home Office and a man she promptly sacked upon becoming PM. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, is also thought to be in the running for the job, or the post could be abolished entirely.
Talking of Damian Green, he's just tweeted to say the Budget will help shape "an economic fit for the future". More fit for the future than his typing skills, one hopes...
It's not the first time Mr Green has struggled with Twitter. Last month he accidentally tweeted a photo of an email sent to him by his special adviser containing the statement he was meant to be releasing. He later managed to tweet just a picture of the statement, this time minus the private email correspondence with his staff.
The Cabinet has finished meeting and ministers are leaving Downing Street, having been briefed on - and presumably signed off - the Budget. Here's Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire leaving the meeting, looking happy enough with what they've heard.
Philip Hammond will use the Budget to stop police and fire services in Scotland having to pay VAT, according to the Scottish Conservatives.
Currently Scottish authorities pay the tax whereas others in the UK do not - an anomaly the Chancellor is thought to be about to end. However, he appears unlikely to agree to the Scottish Government's demands that the emergency services are refunded the £140m they have paid in VAT so far.
The Chancellor will be hoping this Budget receives a better response than his last one. In April, he was forced to backtrack after his plan to increase national insurance contributions united MPs across the House of Commons in opposition.
Mr Hammond kept his job after a humiliating climb-down but the debacle won him few friends on the Conservative benches.
As mentioned below (9.40am), a similar unravelling of his first Autumn Budget could force Theresa May to move Mr Hammond out of a Treasury - a move she fears could ultimately cost her her own job...
(AFP)
Labour has been speculating about the Cabinet's pre-Budget discussions... We like the idea of the country's fiscal future being decided in a WhatsApp group chat.
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