Treasury Postpones Its Budget For 2019

The plans for the Budget 2019 which were about to take place on Wednesday 6th of November are now postponed, the Treasury confirmed in an official post. As the Chancellor Sajid Javid told BBC Breakfast a couple of days ago, he will no longer be delivering a post-Brexit statement in less than two weeks.

This announcement comes hot on the heels of the Parliament that voted to delay the United Kingdom and its separation from the European Union which was initially scheduled for 11pm on 31 October.

As you probably know, Brexit was originally scheduled to happen on 29 March 2019 and before the European Union agreed to the Government and its initial request to grant the six-month extension.

The EU leaders are now considering whether or not to grant a second extension. The length of the delay is still up in the air. Meanwhile, the Government is pushing for a General Election which it wants to happen on 12 December, forcing the Chancellor to cancel the first planned fiscal announcement.

Javid was in the news for stating:

“We have to accept we won’t be able to leave [the EU] by 31 October. What is more important right now [than delivering Budget 2019 on 6 November], I think, is getting Brexit done and then having that General Election.”

Another treasury source spoke to the Daily Mirror and said:

“Parliament has voted for a delay. We’re calling for an Election, so we won’t be delivering the Budget on 6 November.”

Javid previously announced that he was set to hold a Budget after the UK exited on Halloween under the WAB terms. He spoke to the ITV Peston programme on Wednesday when he insisted that this would go ahead.

“There will be a Budget. The Budget is on track,” Javid said. “When I announced the date, November 6, I said the only situation where there won’t be a Budget would be if there was a no-deal outcome – now we can’t rule that out at this point, but we’re on track to have a Budget.”

The budget move also comes after the prime minister Boris Johnson announced that he wants an election on 12 December, and would put forward a motion of the plan by the Treasury on Monday. Even though government sources said the ministers would go on strike if the election bid was rejected, the Labour Party sources indicated that its MPs would not vote for the poll.

This will be the third time Johnson has tried to call an election, after failing to get the necessary two-thirds (434 votes) which is a majority required by the Fixed-Team Parliaments Act on two previous occasions in three months ever since he became a prime minister.

For more news on the budget change, visit our blog.