Chancellor looks set to axe £1.7bn Stonehenge road tunnel

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is expected to cancel the long awaited tunnel under Stonehenge when she addresses parliament later today.

The Chancellor is looking to make cuts of billions of pounds in public spending among claims the state of public finances are much worse than originally believed.

According to reports there is a £20bn hole in public finances and a number of infrastructure projects are facing the axe including the Stonehenge tunnel.

The £1.7bn tunnel, which would have moved the notoriously congested A303 under part of the historic site in Wiltshire, is one of the capital projects inherited by the new government that Ms Reeves has decided are ‘unfunded with unfeasible timelines’.

The tunnel was first proposed in 1995 and received planning approval in 2020 but has become booged in legal challenges over possible damage to the ancient site.

A Treasury internal audit of the public finances will be published on Monday, and is expected to show a gap of around £20bn between tax revenues coming in and expected spending.

The chancellor will tell Parliament that this requires “immediate action” to restore economic stability and “fix the foundations of our economy”.

Ms Reeves is said to be “genuinely shocked” by some of the findings of the audit.

The Conservative Party said the state of the public finances was clear before the election.

Former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt accused the new government of “peddling nonsense”.