Will the Autumn Statement break the Tory truce?

It’s crunch day for Rishi Sunak. This morning his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will stand at the despatch box and unveil a mix of spending cuts and tax rises worth in the region of £55 billion in a bid to fill the fiscal black hole in the public finances. Hunt is expected to tell MPs his fiscal plan will help Britain ‘face into the storm’ by being ‘honest about the challenges, and fair in our solutions’ to inflation and rising energy prices. 

The measures Sunak and Hunt are expected to pitch as the best response to the global financial situation – as well as the fallout from Liz Truss’s not-so-mini-Budget which spooked the markets – include stealth raids on income tax, national insurance, pension savings and VAT. A potential council tax rise is also on the cards – with reports that local authorities will be allowed to increase council tax by 5 per cent without a local referendum.