Gordon Brown's cunning plan unravels?

Full coverage of UK Politics
Well, that was quick. Barely 90 minutes after formally announcing his plans for a stamp duty holiday, Gordon Brown has hit turbulence.

Just how a stamp duty freeze will be funded remains unclear

At the morning Lobby briefing, No. 10 has just been asked how the Government will find the £600 million needed to fund the tax cut. The answer, in summary: "Er, we dunno."

More formally, the PM's official spokesman says only this: "The Government will consider its tax, spending and borrowing plans in the Pre-Budget Report."   

The PBR is not expected until October, giving Treasury officials more than a month to scrabble around looking for loose change down the backs of sofas to pay for today's handout.   Most likely, the already-fragile fiscal rules will be formally scrapped  sorry, reformed in the light of economic circumstances to allow more borrowing.  In effect, the PM will put another £600 million on the Government's credit card. 

But in the meantime, No. 10 could not, would not, rule out any possible means of finding the cash.  So we have to infer that spending cuts, tax rises and more borrowing are all possibilities.

If there is a better example of an "unfunded tax cut" out there, I can't think of it.