Autumn statement 2022 live: OBR says living standards to fall 7% as Hunt confirms millions to pay more taxes

Fiscal watchdog’s figures show eight years of growth wiped out; chancellor announces higher taxes and some cost of living support

In the Commons Rishi Sunak is making a statement about the G20 summit. These statements are normally routine, and just summarise what was said or decided at the meeting. They don’t normally include fresh announcements.

Sunak started by talking about the missile incident in Poland. He said Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles on the day that he “confronted the Russian foreign minister across the G20 summit table”. He said the blame for the missile landing in Poland lay with Russia. Ukraine could not be blamed for defending itself, he said.

During the bombardment of Ukraine on Tuesday an explosion took place in eastern Poland. The investigation into this incident is ongoing and it has our full support.

As we’ve heard the Polish and American presidents say, it is possible the explosion was caused by Ukrainian munition which was deployed in self-defence.

In just a few moments the chancellor will build on these international foundations when he sets out the autumn statement, putting our economy back on to a positive trajectory and restoring our fiscal sustainability.

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Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement promises ‘big bang’ deregulation

Chancellor hopes to emulate Thatcher’s chancellor Nigel Lawson with bonfire of red tape, but move had its critics

Jeremy Hunt doled out the bad news in an autumn statement laden with tax rises and spending cuts, but he sought to buoy the fairly muted Tory benches behind him with a few nods to Thatcherism.

It was not the “iron lady” herself he channelled, but rather her second chancellor, Nigel Lawson, and his famed “big bang” deregulation drive that unshackled the financial markets and let business boom in the City.

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Labour lambasts autumn statement but Tory dissent is muted

Shadow chancellor attacks ‘crisis made in Downing Street’ but there are few signs of anger on Tory benches

Jeremy Hunt has seemingly escaped public pushback from fellow Conservative MPs over his tax-raising autumn statement, but he was lambasted by Labour for trying to blame global factors for a crisis sparked by Liz Truss’s mini-budget.

While there had been mutterings of dissent in advance at the idea of Hunt trashing Truss’s embrace of tax cuts, in the lengthy Commons debate after his statement there were only a few fairly muted quibbles.

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Millions of UK households to pay more for energy from April

Jeremy Hunt expected to use autumn statement to announce rise in household energy price cap to as much as £3,100

Millions of UK households will pay more for their energy from next April under plans to cut the generosity of the government’s gas and electricity support scheme expected to be announced by Jeremy Hunt on Thursday.

The chancellor is likely to use his autumn statement to say the need to save money and reduce state borrowing will require the household energy price cap to rise from £2,500 to an expected £3,000 to £3,100.

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UK Treasury joins chat app Discord and is met with torrent of abuse

Users on gamer-focused platform manage to respond to posts despite government blocking all comments

The UK Treasury has opened an account on Discord to a torrent of abuse from users of the gamer-focused chat app – abuse they managed to send despite the government blocking all comments on the service.

As Twitter’s future looks increasingly uncertain, prominent users are preparing alternatives, directing followers to Facebook and Instagram accounts, handing out their Mastodon addresses, and setting up servers on chat apps such as Discord.

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CBI urges Jeremy Hunt to relax immigration rules to ease UK staff shortages

Lobby group says failure to tackle workforce shortages would be highly damaging for the economy

Britain’s foremost business lobby group has urged Jeremy Hunt to use this week’s autumn statement to shake up immigration rules to support companies struggling with chronic staff shortages and a looming recession.

The head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said urgent action was required from the chancellor on Thursday to bolster the economy, including “tough political choices” to allow more overseas workers in Britain as employers struggle with a desperate lack of staff.

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Jeremy Hunt: everyone will be paying more tax after autumn statement

Chancellor also warns of severe cuts to services as he prepares for his biggest test in his new role

Everyone will be paying “a bit more tax” after the autumn budget, the chancellor has said, as he asked everyone to make sacrifices.

Warning of severe cuts to public services, Jeremy Hunt said there would be “very difficult decisions” made but claimed his plan would show the way through “difficult times”.

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Truss? Brexit? Covid? Who is really to blame for the Tories’ ‘fiscal hole’?

The succession of PMs have all spoken out on who or what has caused the state of UK finances. They’re all partly right, but conveniently miss out one or two other key reasons

Covid-19 ripped a £400bn hole in the government’s finances. The money was used largely to support the economy and it succeeded in allowing industries and workers to bounce back once restrictions were lifted.

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Truss allies challenge Kwarteng’s claim he tried to slow down tax cuts

One backer of ex-PM says ‘that wasn’t what was going on’, as Jeremy Hunt also appears to dispute version of events

Kwasi Kwarteng’s claims that he tried to get Liz Truss to slow down her financial plans have been challenged by her allies.

In his first interview since he was sacked as chancellor by Truss, Kwarteng said he had told the then prime minister to be more cautious with their £45bn programme of tax cuts.

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Hunt dismisses Kwarteng’s claim that mini-budget not to blame for state of UK finances – UK politics live

Latest updates: chancellor says ‘we’ve learned that you can’t fund spending or borrowing without showing how you are going to pay for it’

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has released polling suggesting that half of Londoners are either “financially struggling” (18%) or “just about managing” financially (32%).

According to the polling, 49% of Londoners are also using less water, energy or fuel.

This shocking new polling highlights the realities of the worst cost of living crisis in generations.

With spiralling inflation and soaring interest rates meaning many Londoners are struggling to make ends meet – a situation made worse by the government’s failed mini-budget – the chancellor has a duty to take decisive action on Thursday to support vulnerable Londoners.

In total, the NHS paid more than £3bn to agencies who provide doctors and nurses on short notice. The figure represents a 20% rise on last year, when the health service spent £2.4bn. Trusts spent a further £6bn on bank staff, when NHS staff are paid to do temporary shifts, taking the total spent on additional staff to around £9.2bn.

One in three NHS trusts paid an agency more than £1,000 for a single shift last year, while one in every six trusts paid more than £2,000, results from freedom of information requests reveal.

Taxpayers are picking up the bill for the Conservatives’ failure to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years. This is infuriating amounts of money paid to agencies, when patients are waiting longer than ever for treatment.

Labour will tackle this problem at its root. We will train the doctors and nurses the NHS needs, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status.

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Jeremy Hunt to outline £60bn of tax rises and spending cuts

Guardian understands early drafts of UK government’s autumn statement include at least £35bn reduction in spending

Jeremy Hunt will set out tax rises and spending cuts totalling £60bn at the autumn statement under current plans, including at least £35bn in cuts, the Guardian understands.

Ministers must submit the key points of the autumn statement to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) by Monday morning.

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Non-dom tax breaks being reviewed by the Treasury in effort to raise revenue

Officials are also looking at incorporating cut in tax-free allowance for dividends into autumn statement

Treasury officials are examining whether the autumn statement could include changes to non-dom status and moves to raise taxes on dividends by cutting tax-free allowances.

No final decisions have been taken but Whitehall sources said options were being examined by the Treasury’s high net worth individuals policy team.

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Rishi Sunak preparing years of tax rises to plug £50bn fiscal black hole

PM set to hike taxes across the board to repair nation’s finances after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget

Rishi Sunak is preparing years of tax rises for Britain in an effort to make up for a £50bn fiscal hole left by Liz Truss’s disastrous tenure in Downing Street, according to a Treasury insider.

After a meeting between the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt on Monday to plan the upcoming autumn statement, a Treasury source said things were going to get “rough”.

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Voters choose Sunak’s Tories over Labour to repair economy, new poll reveals

Rishi Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street is already helping to repair the party’s reputation for financial management

Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have overturned Labour’s lead in terms of who voters trust most to manage the economy, a new poll for the Observer has revealed.

The new prime minister is currently drawing up tax rises and spending cuts designed to fill a £40bn fiscal hole left by Liz Truss’s disastrous time in Downing Street, with warnings that any significant attempt to cut Whitehall budgets will lead to huge pressure on public services. It comes with new analysis revealing that freezing public service spending would save £20bn but would also lead to a return to the austerity of the 2010s.

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Bank of England left in the dark ahead of new interest rate decision

With fiscal statement deferred and mixed government messaging on tax and spending the BoE has little to go on

The Bank of England will next week consider how much to raise interest rates without having received any guidance from the government about its tax and spending policies, after Jeremy Hunt pushed back the date for this year’s “autumn statement”.

Its policymakers meet on 3 November to decide the increase in the cost of borrowing required to tackle a rate of inflation that climbed above 10% in September.

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Pensions triple lock and benefits in spotlight as Sunak delays fiscal plan

No 10 not committing to keeping triple lock or inflation-linked benefits rise in 17 November statement

Ministers are to re-examine the pensions triple lock and increasing benefits in line with inflation over the next fortnight, according to No 10, after Rishi Sunak delayed the announcement of the government’s fiscal plans from 31 October to 17 November.

The Treasury has said the new date will now be a full autumn statement, with Sunak telling his cabinet that time needed to be made to do things in the proper way.

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Jacob Rees-Mogg and Brandon Lewis quit as PM begins reshuffle

Rees-Mogg resigns as business secretary and Lewis relinquishes justice secretary role as Sunak begins to assemble cabinet

Jacob Rees-Mogg and Brandon Lewis have resigned from the government as Rishi Sunak begins to assemble his new cabinet, with the prime minister also sacking Chloe Smith and Wendy Morton.

Sunak is expected to keep Jeremy Hunt as chancellor, at least for the short term, and return Suella Braverman to the cabinet, as well as handing new posts to key leadership allies Oliver Dowden, Mel Stride and Dominic Raab.

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Huge margin of support gives Rishi Sunak a free hand in choosing cabinet

New prime minister likely to prioritise unity in offering ministerial jobs, although leading Trussites can expect the chop

Rishi Sunak has pledged to build a cabinet of all the talents but, given the swiftness of the leadership competition, relatively little has been briefed about his potential cabinet.

His team say no roles have been promised to any backers and Sunak was in the enviable position as the frontrunner of not needing to promise roles to anyone.

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Exclusive: 90% of UK schools will run out of money next year, heads warn

Heads say they will be in deficit next academic year, even without cuts Jeremy Hunt is planning

Nine out of 10 schools will have run out of money by the next school year as the enormous burden of increased energy and salary bills takes its toll, the Observer can reveal.

Early data from the National Association of Head Teachers – results of a survey of its members are due later this month – shows that 50% of heads say their school will be in deficit this year, with almost all expecting to be in the red by next September,when their reserve run out. This comes as Jeremy Hunt has made clear that all departments, including education, will be expected to make cuts as part of the government’s debt reduction plan, to be announced on 31 October.

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Liz Truss quits: candidates to be prime minister must have at least 100 nominations from Tory MPs – live

Nominations for next Tory leader will close at 2pm on Monday before next prime minister is confirmed on 28 October

• Liz Truss to quit as prime minister – full story

Attempting to steady the ship is Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, who has told PA news agency that the chaos over the fracking vote had been a “storm in a teacup”, and that the appointment of Shapps could strengthen Truss’s position.

“The [Suella] Braverman issue is rather more fundamental, but I think on balance it’s possible the prime minister might come out of it actually stronger rather than weaker,” he is quoted as saying. “We need people in the government who are grown-up and experienced and understand real politics.”

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