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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to deliver his budget to parliament today as he seeks to provide clarity on how the Rishi Sunak government plans to weather an economic “storm”. He is now widely expected to unveil a package of £25bn worth of tax rises and £35bn of spending cuts to plug a £60bn funding hole in Treasury coffers and reassure global markets that Britain remains a reliable trading partner. He will tell MPs that his announcement will put the UK on a “balanced path to stability” as it tackles the “enemy” of inflation, which has soared to a 41-year high. Mr Hunt will say his “difficult decisions” are necessary to keep mortgage rates low and tackle high energy and food prices that are exacerbating the cost of living crisis. It comes after Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the UK economy had suffered a “dramatically” worse recovery from Covid than the US and EU.

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The Bank of England attacks the government’s financial failure

Ahead of today’s landmark autumn statement – and after inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1% – Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey criticized Britain’s “damaging reputation” which he said had worsened the crisis. “It will take longer to rebuild that reputation than it will to fix the gold curve [government borrowing costs]. We have to tread carefully,” he warned the Commons Treasury committee. Rob Merrick, Jon Stone report: Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 07:05 1668667500

ICYMI: When is Jeremy Hunt’s autumn budget?

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will finally deliver an Autumn Budget today to set out exactly how he plans to restore order to Britain’s public finances. “We will ask everyone to make sacrifices. But in a fair society, as we are in the UK, there’s only so much you can ask of people on the lowest incomes,” he told Sky News on Sunday with Sophy Ridge. Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 06:45 1668666300

Hunt’s autumn statement ‘too late’ for those on benefits

People on benefits have described feeling like “the walking dead” as they voiced fears that Jeremy Hunt’s expected announcement to increase payments in line with rising prices will be too late. “I think it’s too late,” Phoenix, a mother of four from Crystal Palace, south-east London, told PA news agency. She relies on universal credit to provide for her children, who are aged between four and 15. “None of the people have hope. We are like the real dead…so many people (say) the same thing. “The struggle is real, but do we really need to be in this turmoil?” Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 06:25 1668665100

Plans to cut elective NHS treatment at ‘serious risk’, says watchdog

Patients could face years of waiting for treatment on the NHS as the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that the plan to reduce long waiting times for elective care and cancer care services by 2025 is at serious risk, The Guardian has reported. “There are significant risks to the delivery of the plan to reduce long waits for elective care and cancer care services by 2025. The NHS is facing workforce shortages and inflationary pressures and will need to be flexible in responding as the results of different initiatives in the emerging recovery program Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said. An NHS spokesman said the healthcare provider was currently on track to deliver recovery milestones. “Despite concerns about what is likely to be a very difficult winter, the NHS is currently on track to achieve its next recovery milestones – having already effectively eliminated two-year waits for care and reduced waiting 18 months by nearly 60 percent a year,” the spokesman was quoted as saying. “Staff have achieved this despite higher staff absences, more Covid patients in hospital this summer than the last two combined, reduced hospital capacity caused by social care issues discharging patients back into the community and increased demand for A&E services care”. (PA file) Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 06:05 1668663900

The sharp impact of Brexit on UK food prices has been confirmed

Brexit has added 6 percent to UK food prices, a Bank of England official said as inflation hit a 41-year high. “It is undeniable now that we are seeing a much bigger slowdown in UK trade compared to the rest of the world,” Dr Swati Dhingra, who is also an associate professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), told MPs. . Living standards are under huge pressure around the world this year due to record inflation, particularly in food and energy prices, but Dr Dhingra said Britain would suffer more as a direct result of leaving the EU. Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 05:45 1668662700

Food banks are helping young people in a cost-of-living crisis, research has found

Most food banks are now helping people who have never turned to them for support as the cost of living crisis continues to take its toll, a new survey has found. Two-thirds of Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) members polled said they had helped people completely new to food banks in recent months. Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 05:25 1668661500

UK inflation jumps to 41-year high at 11.1% as food prices soar

As chancellor Jeremy Hunt prepares to present the autumn budget on Thursday, the latest consumer price index (CPI) has been recorded as the highest since October 1981 and marks a full percentage point rise over the past month, almost twice as much as economists had expected . Inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1%. Mr Hunt blamed the impact of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine for the rise in prices, which he warned was “preventing any chance of long-term economic growth”. Liam James, Aisha Rimi report: Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 05:05 1668660300

Make no mistake, the government shares the blame for high inflation

“Rishi Sunak and his partner are not as bad as the ideologues before them. But the lingering effects of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng – the formidable duo – and their disastrous mini-budget are still there. It will be written all over Hunt’s statement. This resulted in increased mortgage costs and other pain. So yes, the government clearly deserves to pay a high political price for the high prices the nation is experiencing.” Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 04:45 1668659117

Greenpeace feeds film about poverty at Sunak’s Yorkshire home

Greenpeace campaigners have uploaded a documentary film about a community struggling to sustain itself through the cost of living crisis at Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire mansion. In a statement, Heather Kennedy, a community organizer from the New Economics Foundation who works in the Rother Valley and helped produce the film, said: “Cost of Living shows communities in South Yorkshire, but the conditions they face will be well known to people. throughout Britain. “After the biggest drop in incomes on record and more than a decade of underfunded, crumbling public services, we’re hit with inflated energy costs that make fossil fuel companies rich and us poor.” Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 04:25 1668657917

Autumn budget: Here’s what to expect

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is to draw up a package of sweeping spending cuts and tax rises in a plan he promises will bolster Britain’s defenses against an economic “storm”. During a round of media interviews on Sunday morning, chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that everyone in the UK will end up “paying a bit more tax” as a result of what he will reveal on Thursday. Joe Sommerlad has the details on what we can expect from the autumn budget: Sravasti Dasgupta17 November 2022 04:05