Jeremy Hunt has again warned of “difficult decisions” to come on tax and spending cuts in Thursday’s autumn statement, as he insisted that tackling inflation is his “absolute priority”.
As Rishi Sunak condemned Vladimir Putin’s “barbaric” and “illegal” war across the conference table from Russia’s foreign secretary Sergei Lavrov at the G20 summit in Bali, his chancellor blamed the conflict for driving inflation – “a hidden and insidious tax that is eating into paychecks and savings”.
The need to combat soaring price rises “guides the difficult decisions on tax and spending we will make on Thursday”, Mr Hunt said.
Their comments came as Office for National Statistics figures showed that real-terms wages have fallen again and that UK unemployment rose slightly to 3.6 per cent in the three months to September.
Blaming the “knock-on impact of 12 years of Tory economic mistakes and low growth”, Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted that “what Britain needs in the Autumn Statement on Thursday are fairer choices for working people, and a proper plan for growth”.
