Liberal Democrats demand emergency NHS funding in Autumn Statement

The Liberal Democrats have released a set of demands for tomorrow's Autumn Statement, including an urgeng £4bn injection of funding into the NHS, to avert a winter crisis and prevent declining performance and longer waiting lists next year.

The £4bn demand breaks down as follows:

• £1.3bn additional funding for social care
• £1.8bn additional transformation funding, to deliver modernisation and improve efficiency in the NHS
• £400m additional dedicated funding for mental health
• £500m additional emergency funding to plug gaps across services

You can find more detail on the party's website here, alongside demands for a commitment to the Single Market, housebuilding, a public sector pay rise and support for small business.

It will be instructive to see whether the chancellor can continue to put off the so-called "punishment budget" - the Leave campaign's name for George Osborne's observation that he would have less money to spend in a damaged post-Brexit economy. Much will hinge on the state of economic forecasts, which themselves are clouded by political uncertainty.