So, yet more spending cuts, a higher tax burden and cruel policies towards the vulnerable. The same old Tories.

Beginning his autumn statement, Jeremy Hunt started with the claim ‘I come today with good news’. Here was a Chancellor, keen to paint a rosy picture of just how well it was all going and why he was on the side of ordinary people. It seems as though Hunt is living in an alternative reality. For it’s not as great as he would like us to believe.

 Here are some of the three key takeaways from Hunt’s autumn statement. 

1.Yet more austerity and spending cuts 

While the chancellor is keen to portray a rosy picture of Tory spending plans, describing himself as a compassionate Conservative, recommitting to 1% a year public spending increases in the latter years of the decade, what that amounts to in reality is a real terms cut in unprotected government departments. The OBR says the measures will result in a £19bn reduction in spending on public services, after accounting for inflation. So while our public services are stretched and schools are crumbling, the Tories will not be investing in our public services yet again. 

2. Tories don’t cut your taxes as much as they want you to believe 

Hunt is keen to portray the Tories and himself as yet another ‘tax cutting Chancellor’ on the side of ordinary people, yet new figures from the OBR show that the overall tax burden is expected to significantly increase under Sunak to a postwar high. As the OBR states: “Even after the significant reductions in personal and corporate taxes announced in this Autumn Statement, the tax burden  is forecast to reach a post-war high of 37.7 per cent of GDP in 2028-29, 4.5 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level of 33.1 per cent of GDP”. 

3. More severe benefit sanctions and harsher measures for people on out-of-work disability benefits 

The nasty party also announced today that it would be bringing in more severe benefit sanctions and harsher measures for people on out-of-work disability benefits, which has received widespread condemnation. Before Hunt delivered his autumn statement, Laura Trott, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, dismissed concerns over a tougher and less humane welfare system, saying that those who can “should work” – arguing there was a “duty on citizens” to do so. The measures and Trott’s comments have been condemned by disability charities, including SCOPE, who posted on X: “Disabled people do not have a duty to work unsuitable jobs. Let’s get that clear. The government *does* have a duty to not dehumanise the million disabled people who want to work but are denied the chance. It’s a duty the government is failing on. “Laura Trott’s comments today are absurd. It’s completely irresponsible to suggest that people who are unwell have a duty to work through it. “Comments like this fuel a dangerous narrative. One that demonises disabled people, and paints them as burdens on the taxpayer.” 

So, yet more spending cuts, a higher tax burden and cruel policies towards the vulnerable. The same old Tories.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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