article: In his Autumn Statement Philip Hammond said growth predictions had been cut as a result of the Brexit vote. As widely expected, he unveiled a fuel duty freeze and more cash for housing, transport and digital infrastructure. Labour said the government was "unprepared and ill-equipped" for Brexit and had "no vision". Mr Hammond told MPs the UK's deficit would no longer be cleared by 2020 - with the target instead "as early as possible" afterwards. Mr Hammond said the statement - his first major Commons event as chancellor - came exactly five months after a Brexit vote which "will change the course of Britain's history", making it "more urgent than ever" to tackle long-term economic weaknesses. Presenting the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecasts, he said borrowing would hit £68.2bn this year and £59bn next year, compared with the March forecast of £55.5bn and £38.8bn. The OBR said the referendum result meant potential growth in the current Parliament would be 2.4 percentage points lower than forecast in March. Government finances are forecast to be £122bn worse off than in the spring. Among the chancellor's announcements were: Mr Hammond said the government would prioritise "additional high-value investment" on infrastructure, which would be funded by additional borrowing. He paid tribute to his predecessor George Osborne but said he would now follow three new fiscal rules: to balance the books "as early as possible in the next Parliament", for public sector net debt to be falling as a share of GDP by the end of Parliament and for welfare spending to be within a cap. The OBR based its forecasts on the assumption that the UK would leave the EU in April 2019 - two years after the government's deadline for triggering negotiations with Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. It also assumed new trading arrangements would slow import and export growth for a decade and that migration would be restricted. It said the increased borrowing would result from weak tax receipts and lower than expected growth predictions as a result of June's vote to leave the European Union. Based on its assumptions around Brexit - the government has not yet revealed the details of its negotiating plan - it predicted the referendum result would account for an extra £58bn of borrowing. This included a predicted £16bn increase as a result of lower migration and £18.1bn because of lower productivity growth. The OBR said its forecasts for Brexit were "uncertain", and they were disputed by Conservative MP John Redwood, who said: "Their forecast probably is too low, their borrowing forecast is far too high, and we'll get good access to the single market once we're out of the EU." The Economists for Brexit group said the OBR had "assumed a pessimistic outlook for the UK economy outside the EU, based on bad economic policy-making". At the end of his speech, Mr Hammond revealed the Autumn Statement would be scrapped in future years, saying there was no need for major tax changes to be made twice a year. Instead, he added to laughter from MPs, there would
summary: The UK economy is "resilient" despite forecasts that government finances will be £122bn worse off than previously expected by 2020, the chancellor said.