Latest editorial
Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt walks to his car holding the Autumn Statement booklet outside No 11 Downing Street, in London, November 22, 2023
AUSTERITY is on the way back, independent experts warned today following Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement.
Mr Hunt’s handouts to business and attempt to win votes by cutting National Insurance contributions will be financed by a renewed squeeze on public services, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) spelt out.
Institute director Paul Johnson said the “substantial tax cuts” in the Chancellor’s statement were being “paid for by planned real cuts in public service spending.”
We cannot refuse to abolish the unjustifiable two-child benefit cap that pushes children into poverty while finding billions of pounds for defence spending — the membership and the public expect better from Labour, writes JON TRICKETT MP
Our two-tear Chancellor’s woes at PMQs caused a multimillion-pound sinking feeling on the bond market, writes ANDREW MURRAY