UK’s new Treasury chief axes projects to save costs and confirms deal to end doctors strike

Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Labour government has axed several construction projects and withdrawn a winter fuel payment for millions of retirees to cover what it calls a newly found 22-billion-pound ($28 billion) shortfall in the public finances. It blames the former Conservative administration. The Treasury chief in her first major speech accused the Conservative government of covering up the dire state of the public purse following a review of departmental spending that she commissioned after Labour’s landslide victory. Reeves also confirmed that the government has reached agreement to end the long-running strike of doctors at the start of their career.