THE Office for Budget Responsibility has cast doubt on the government’s claim that a £20.5 billion annual increase in NHS funding will be partly paid for by a so-called “Brexit dividend”.

It said Brexit “is more likely to weaken the public finances than strengthen them”.

The independent watchdog’s Fiscal Sustainability Report also estimated that - in the absence of any planned tax changes or spending cuts being set out yet - the spending increase would add 1.5 per cent of GDP to the annual deficit over the long term, pushing up the UK’s debt pile. It warned public sector net debt could rise from 80 per cent of GDP in 2022 to almost 283 per cent by 2067.

Our children and grandchildren will be saddled with that debt and Brexit will do nothing to alleviate the problem.

Some economists argue that the Government’s focus on balancing the books is unnecessary, and that the government could easily borrow more without spooking the international markets which fund Britain’s deficit requirements. But Chancellor Philip Mr Hammond remains wholly committed to the government’s target of a zero deficit by the middle of the next decade.

So the future is one of more austerity, a cash-strapped health service, low wages, more people pushed off unemployment benefit and more business ready to offer them zero hours contracts without fundamental employment rights.

Can you fit all of that on the side of a bus?