Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen, including reaction to the autumn statement and the IFS press conference
8.17am GMT
Q: Are you saying you don’t believe the OBR forecasts? The Telegraph says you take these forecasts with a pinch of salt.
Hammond says forecasting is not a precise science. The OBR itself says there is a large degree of uncertainty. The government should not ignore these forecasts. It should include them in the range of possibilities for which it plans. It should not ignore the strengths of the economy. And it is right to keep something aside.
8.14am GMT
Q: This is higher debt than after the oil crisis or the banking crisis. Some people say this is not just an economic failure, but a moral failure. That is what the Tory manifesto said in 2015.
Hammond says the government has controlled public spending. It has generated nearly 2.8m new jobs. And the OBR says another 500,000 new jobs will be created this parliament.
8.12am GMT
Nick Robinson is interviewing Philip Hammond.
Q: Is it time to apologise for saying you would tackle the deficit when you haven’t?
8.10am GMT
As usual, the morning after the autumn statement, the chancellor and his Labour opposite number are doing a round of interviews. Philip Hammond will be on the Today programme shortly, and I will be covering his interview in full.
Yesterday Hammond told MPs that the Office for Budget Responsibility thinks Brexit will cost the country £59bn over the next five years. Tory Brexiteers have dismissed this analysis, and Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, said this was “another utter doom and gloom scenario”. But last night David Gauke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, defended the OBR. He told Newsnight:
We have an independent body that makes the forecasts and it is sensible for a government to work on the basis that that independent body has got it right.
Related: Brexit will blow £59bn hole in public finances, admits Hammond
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Sig Nordal 