Theresa May has officially delayed plans for a budget surplus in her first PMQs
Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that her government will still seek to achieve a budget surplus, but admitted that it will not be met by 2020.
Former chancellor George Osborne suggested at the start of this month that the 2020 target would be axed, and May has now confirmed that her government will not resurrect the goal.
With Osborne observing from the backbenches at May's first session of Prime Minister's Questions, she said: “We will not be targeting that at the end of this parliament.”
May also took the chance to recommit her government to a “sustainable” net migration of target less than 100,000.
“It will take some time to get there, but of course now we have the added aspect of those controls that we can bring in relation to people moving from the European Union,” she said.
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It came after foreign secretary Boris Johnson yesterday warned that setting a numeric target for net migration would risk "disappointing people again".
May also came out on top in her first clash with Jeremy Corbyn, in particular when the Labour leader to highlight the plight of workers with little job security.
“There are many members on the opposition benches who might be familiar with an unscrupulous boss,” May responded.
“A boss who doesn't listen to his workers. A boss who requires some of his workers to double their workload. And maybe even a boss who exploits the rules to further his own career.
“Remind him of anybody?”
And Corbyn also came under fire from his own benches after May began her session by thanking the 140 Labour MPs who backed a replacement for Trident in a vote earlier this week in line with party policy.
However, Corbyn voted against a replacement, leading Labour MP Jamie Reed to thank the Prime Minister today for “wholehearted support and endorsement for official Labour party policy on Trident”.
“It's such a refreshing change to hear that from the despatch box,” Reed said.