The Chancellor is today giving the final Budget before the UK leaves the EU.
As crunch time looms for Philip Hammond, we’re giving you a brief guide on what to expect.
When is it?
It is on Monday 29 October at 3.30pm.
This year the timing of the Budget is slightly different.
It is earlier in the year than usual to avoid clashing with the final stage of Brexit negotiations in November.
The Budget is being presented on a Monday and normally it is revealed on a Wednesday after Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Chancellor will start his speech at around 3.30pm – three hours later than usual.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn then gets the first response, before MPs debate the Budget.
What are the big themes?
The Chancellor is expected to respond to Theresa May’s declaration in her Conservative Party conference speech that the era of austerity was finally ending with a cautious loosening of the public spending purse strings.
Theresa May has already announced a £20 billion-a-year increase for the NHS in England over the next five years, suggesting taxpayers will need to contribute a “bit more” to pay for it.
The Chancellor is also expected to tell MPs that he is setting up a £28.8 billion fund to upgrade and maintain the country’s motorways and other major routes and also include a £2 billion increase in mental health funding.
The additional funding for mental health will be used to pay for the provision of support in every major A&E department, as well as more specialist ambulances and school mental health teams.
Where does Brexit come into it?
Mr Hammond has said that the plans he would be setting out in the Commons today were based on the assumption Britain would get a Brexit deal with Brussels.
In the event of a no-deal break with the EU, he said he would be forced to tear them up and institute an emergency budget to set the economy on a “new direction”.
