John McDonnell today claimed Labour's massive renationalisation programme would not cost taxpayers a penny - despite research suggesting it will mean splurging £176billion.

Labour has vowed to take back control of water and electricity companies and the rail and mail sectors.

But the plans have been slammed by free marketeers who have warned that it will cost an eye-watering amount in upfront costs.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show today, Mr McDonnell refused to say how much the Government would have to splash out in order to buy the companies back.

But he insisted that British households will not be saddled with debt by the policy as they will reap the benefits of the services being brought back into public hands.

John McDonnell (pictured today on the BBC's Andrew Marr show) claimed Labour 's massive renationalisation programme would not cost taxpayers a penny - despite research suggesting it will mean splurging £176billion

Quizzed by the presenter about how much it will cost, Labour's shadow chancellor said: 'Well when Parliament determines that, that will determine the price.

'But let me reassure them, it will not cost them anything because what we'll be doing is taking an asset, it will give us an income, we'll cover the cost of purchase and invest properly and reduce costs.'

Hammond warns tomorrow's Budget could be torn up if there is a no deal Brexit The Chancellor said all of the spending pledges which he will announce in tomorrow's Budget are based on Britain getting a Brexit deal. Philip Hammond has warned that Britain will need to take a 'different approach' to the economy and pass another Budget if the UK crashes out of the EU. The Chancellor said all of the spending pledges which he will announce in tomorrow's Budget are based on Britain getting a Brexit deal. He is due to pump £30billion into Britain's roads, hundreds of millions on improving super-fast broadband in the countryside, and more money for defence. But his comments suggests those big ticket spending pledges could be torn up in just a matter of months if the EU refuses to do a deal with the UK. And Mr Hammond also warned that the country's whole approach to the economy may need to be overhauled if the country suffers the shock of crashing out. His stark words comes amid growing fears of a no deal Brexit as Theresa May faces a race against time to try to thrash out an agreement by the end of the year. He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News:: 'If we don't get a deal, if we do leave the EU without any deal - I believe that is an extraordinarily unlikely situation - but of course we have to prepare for all eventualities as nay government would. 'If we were to find ourselves in that situation then we would need to take a different approach to the future of Britain's economy. 'We would need to look at a different strategy and frankly we'd need to have a new budget that set out a different strategy for the future.' Advertisement

The Centre for Policy Studies think-tank has said that Jeremy Corbyn's renationalisation programme will mean splurging at least £176bn.

This would represent around 10 per cent of the national debt, or nearly £6,500 for every household, they warned.

The think-tank said it had calculated that bringing the energy market back under public control would cost £55.4bn, while £86.25bn would go on the water sector, £4.5bn for Royal Mail, and £30bn for PFI (private finance initiatives) nationalisation.

Senior Treasury Minister Liz Truss hit back at Mr McDonnell's comments, saying: 'John McDonnell's claim that £176 billion of renationalisation would not cost people anything shows exactly why he and Jeremy Corbyn can't be trusted with the economy and your taxes.

'Just like last time, ordinary working people would pay the price for Labour with more debt, higher taxes and fewer jobs.

'Only the Conservatives will take the balanced approach our economy needs of getting growth up and debt falling, keeping taxes low and spending more on public services like the NHS.'

Mr McDonnell toured the television studios this morning to attack Philip Hammond's plans for tomorrow's Budget and put forward his own plans.

He claimed that Tory promises to end austerity are hollow and vowed that Labour would go a step further and reverse many of the cuts seen in the past decade.

But he only promised to reverse 10 per cent of Tory benefits cuts and refused three times to say Labour would go any further than this.

Pressing the point, presenter Andrew Marr said: ‘Voters are looking at your political party and they want to know if you will actually reverses all of the cuts, for example on benefits?’

Mr McDonnell replied: We have said already that we will put £4billion aside for a new social security system which will tackle most of the problems of the universal credit problem.

‘Bit at the same time introduce a real living wage – what the TUC and others have been calling for – tackle the housing problem by building so we are not dependent on benefit.,

'And so that way we can lift people out of poverty and they don’t need then to rely upon the social security.’