Sunak’s Conservatives are the party of zero growth

We might get a new nuclear power station one day, unless the protestors or the Supreme Court find a way to block it. We will plough on with High Speed Rail 2 regardless of its mounting cost. And there will be some re-heated waffle about supporting technology and innovation, complete with misty-eyed homilies to Alexander Fleming and John Logie Baird that could have been lifted word for word from any chancellor’s speech over the last fifty years. And, er, that was about it. In his Autumn Statement today, Jeremy Hunt had nothing to say about growth – because, in reality, Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives have become a zero-growth party.

In the end, it was probably not as bad as some of the advanced leaks suggested it might be. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) managed to keep the black hole down to just above £50 billion, while the bulk of the tax rises were imposed on the top earners, with the 45 per cent threshold reduced to £125,000, and on anyone unlucky to be in the energy business.