Autumn statement 2022 live: Jeremy Hunt to unveil plans as Labour says ’12 years of Tory economic failure’ holding UK back

Read More

Jeremy Hunt will argue today that he is not implementing austerity 2.0, the Times’s Steven Swinford reports.

Labour claims the UK is stuck in a “Conservative doom loop of emergency statements”. The phrase came from Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, who used it in an interview with Sky News.

He said Jeremy Hunt should start his autumn statement by accepting that the mini-budget was a mistake. He said:

I think he should acknowledge their responsibility for what’s happened. I don’t think he should pretend the mini-budget was just a bad dream.

He also said that he was worried that Hunt would “overcompensate” for the mistakes made by his predecessor.

He accepted that Labour’s green prosperity plan would have to be funded “in part by borrowing”. But he insisted there was a difference between “borrowing for unfunded tax cuts”, as Kwasi Kwarteng was doing in the mini-budget, and borrowing for “investments that will have a return for the future of the country”.

The Treasury has released a short video giving its take on what it sees as the aims of the autumn statement. It features Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, but there are also cameo appearances by Grant Shapps, the business secretary, Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, and Rishi Sunak, the PM.

Here is our overnight preview story on the autumn statement, by Rowena Mason and Larry Elliott.

It is usual for the Treasury to brief aspects of what will be in the budget, or a budget-type event, in advance, but the process has been unusual this year because it feels as if everything has been reported. This is probably deliberate. One reason why the Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget self-destructed was because it went further than the markets were expecting, which caused something of a panic, and a sharp increase in government borrowing costs. Jeremy Hunt does not want to make the same mistake.

In his First Edition briefing, my colleague Archie Bland has a good summary of what to expect.

And my colleague Richard Partington has a good guide to the autumn statement in the form of five charts that explain the backdrop.

Good morning. They are still not calling it a budget, but today’s autumn statement will be the second colossal “fiscal event” of the autumn, much bigger than a usual budget, or arguably the third. The first was Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget. Then there was Jeremy Hunt’s announcement in his first full day as chancellor abandoning almost all the measures in the mini-budget – the biggest government U-turn in the modern era. And today Hunt, now working for a new prime minister, will set out a fiscal strategy that entirely reverses the Kwarteng/Liz Truss one.

Kwarteng announced tax cuts worth ?45bn. Hunt is expecting to announce tax rises worth ?24bn, plus spending cuts worth around ?30bn.

The autumn statement won’t just be a repudiation of the short-lived and disastrous Truss premiership. In some respects Hunt will undoing policies that the Conservatives have championed for much of their last 12 years in office. David Cameron and George Osborne kept increasing the personal tax allowance, so they could remove more and more people from having to pay tax in the first place. Today Hunt is going to extend the period for which allowances are frozen, using this as a stealth tax, and dragging more people into paying tax. Osborne cut corporation tax significantly. Now it is shooting up again.

But, in other respects, the autumn statement will feel like a return to 2010. Cameron and Osborne claimed the UK needed austerity to balance the books. This is being dubbed austerity 2.0.

In a statement released overnight, the Treasury says “balancing the books is key to economic stability”. Hunt says the UK is facing “into the storm”. He says:

There is a global energy crisis, a global inflation crisis and a global economic crisis.

But the British people are tough, inventive, and resourceful. We have risen to bigger challenges before.

We aren’t immune to these global headwinds, but with this plan for stability, growth and public services – we will face into the storm.

But in her overnight statementbefore the announcement, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, says the country is being held back by “12 years of Tory economic failure”. She says:

Britain has so much potential but we are falling behind on the global stage, while mortgages, food and energy costs all go up and up.

The country is being held back by 12 years of Tory economic failure and wasted opportunities and working people are paying the price.

What Britain needs in the autumn statement today are fairer choices for working people, and a proper plan for growth.

Here is the agenda for the day.

8.30am: Rishi Sunak chairs cabinet, where Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, will outline the contents of his autumn statement.

10.30am: Sunak makes a statement to MPs about the G20 summit.

Around 11.30am: Hunt delivers the autumn statement.

2pm: The Office for Budget Responsibility holds a briefing.

My colleague Graeme Wearden will be joining the blog later to help me cover the statement and provide analysis and reaction afterwards.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions and, if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow. Graeme is on @graemewearden.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com