This is Jeremy Hunt’s second Autumn Statement. His 2022 statement came shortly after he replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer, following his predecessor’s controversial so-called ‘mini-budget’.
With his party far behind in the polls, and a general election on the horizon next year, the chancellor will hope that the economic measures announced today will prove popular enough to start closing the gap with Labour.
In response Hunt’s Labour counterpart, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accused the government of 13 years of economic failure. Report by Gracex. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
With his party far behind in the polls, and a general election on the horizon next year, the chancellor will hope that the economic measures announced today will prove popular enough to start closing the gap with Labour.
In response Hunt’s Labour counterpart, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accused the government of 13 years of economic failure. Report by Gracex. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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NewsTranscript
00:00 the biggest package of tax cuts to be implemented since the 1980s, an autumn statement for a
00:06 country that has turned a corner, an autumn statement for growth, which I commend to the
00:10 House.
00:13 This is Jeremy Hunt's second autumn statement. His 2022 statement came shortly after he replaced
00:19 Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer, following his predecessor's controversial
00:25 so-called mini-budget. With his party far behind in the polls, and a general election
00:32 on the horizon next year, Jeremy Hunt will hope that the economic measures announced
00:37 today will prove popular enough to start closing the gap with Labour.
00:44 Here are five of his flagship policy announcements from the statement.
00:49 I can announce that we are abolishing class 2 national insurance altogether, saving the
00:56 average self-employed person £192 a year. I'm going to go further and cut the main
01:02 rate of employee national insurance by two percentage points, from 12% to 10%.
01:10 Today I confirm we'll go further and accept the Low Pay Commission recommendation to increase
01:15 the national living wage by 9.8% to £11.44 an hour.
01:20 Today we honour our commitment to the triple lock in full. From April 24, we will increase
01:26 the full new state pension by 8.5% to £221.20 a week, worth up to £900 more a year.
01:37 I have decided to freeze all alcohol duty until August 1 next year. That means no increase
01:43 in duty on beer, cider, wine or spirits. We'll provide a further £1.3 billion of funding
01:52 to offer extra help to the 300,000 people who've been unemployed for over a year without
01:58 any sickness or disability. But we will ask for something in return.
02:05 If after 18 months of intensive support, job seekers have not found a job, we'll roll
02:10 out a programme requiring them to take part in mandatory work placement to increase their
02:15 skills and improve their employability. And if they choose not to engage with the work
02:20 search process for six months, we will close their case and stop their benefits.
02:29 In response, Hunt's Labour counterpart, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, accused the government
02:35 of 13 years of economic failure.
02:38 We were told that this was to be an autumn statement for growth, but the economy is now
02:46 forecast to be £40 billion smaller by 2027 than the Chancellor said back in March. Growth
02:55 revives down next year, the year after and the year after that too. The Chancellor claims
03:03 that the economy has turned a corner, yet the truth is that under the Conservatives,
03:09 growth has hit a dead end.
03:12 Today's tax cuts and wage and pension increases are designed to convince people that they
03:18 will be more well off under a Conservative government. But with the Office for Budget
03:23 Responsibility downgrading its growth forecasts and estimating a record-breaking reduction
03:29 in living standards over the next two years, it's not yet clear whether Hunt's policies
03:34 will be enough to sway voters.
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]