Everyone will pay more tax, say Sunak and Hunt,

Spending cuts to come, and everyone will pay more tax, says chancellor

- Aletha Adu Jessica Elgot

The prime minister and the chancellor attempted yesterday to prepare the ground for a bleak autumn statement, saying that everybody should expect higher taxes and arguing that financial markets were expecting deep cuts to public spending.

Speaking en route to the G20 in Bali, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told reporters that the reason financial markets were no longer in turmoil was because they expected Jeremy Hunt to clamp down on borrowing and squeeze spending in Thursday’s statement. “Financial conditions in the UK have stabilised clearly, but they have stabilised because people expect the government to take the decisions that will put our public finances on a sustainable trajectory, and it’s the government’s job to deliver on that,” Sunak said. “And that’s what the chancellor will do.”

Sunak and Hunt have not committed to preserving the pensions triple lock or to uprating benefits in line with inflation, but the prime minister said he was “cognisant of supporting the most vulnerable”. However, he said ministers must “crucially [be] delivering on the expectations of international markets, especially to make sure that our fiscal position is on a more sustainable trajectory”.