Over the weekend, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury told the Sunday Telegraph:
"If we get into office and we deliver the efficiencies and we put the money in the bank, we put it by and then we go back to the electorate and we say not, 'we would like you to believe that we will find these savings, that we will eliminate this waste', but 'we have actually done it, we've made the savings, we've got this money in the bank, now we are going to tell you how we will use that to cut your taxes in a way that is prudent and sustainable'.... It will be the great bonus of the second election. You go into government with a set of fully funded promises and during that first term of office, by delivering an efficiency programme, we will pile up the headroom to be able to offer reductions in taxation... When the money's piled up in the pot, then you give it away in tax cuts."
It's worth pointing out that Hammond also said in the same interview:
"Families were looking for some relief [in the Budget] and what they got was another hit. If you ask families the question, 'do you feel your tax burden is too high or too low?', I suspect invariably the answer will be too high."
So Hammond's answer to the following questions would presumably be: Do you think taxes are too high? "Yes". So will you cut them? "No, well, maybe in 2014".
What utter rubbish!