A summary of today's developments
The Office of Budget Responsibility has confirmed it could have produced an economic forecast in time for the “mini-budget”, but was not asked to do so by Kwasi Kwarteng. It adds further details to ongoing objections that the chancellor’s move, which included £45bn of tax cuts, without a clear economic forecast to back it up.
Liz Truss will now attend a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) meeting in Prague in October, according to PA Media. It is understood the prime minister wanted to attend because energy and migration, both items on the agenda of the meeting, are two of her priorities and that she sees the need to work with other European leaders to resolve the issues. The move to attend the meeting of the group – French president Emmanuel Macron’s scheme to bring together EU nations and countries outside the bloc – will raise eyebrows given Truss’s explicit scepticism about the project only a few months ago as foreign secretary.
A YouGov poll for the Times gives Labour a 33-point lead over the Conservatives, understood to be the biggest gap recorded since the late 1990s.
Mel Stride, the Conservative chair of the Commons, has written an open letter to the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng. Stride asks Kwarteng to bring forward the publication of the medium-term fiscal plan, and the OBR’s new forecast, which are both due on 23 November. Stride says the chancellor contributed to the recent turmoil in the markets by refusing to publish an OBR forecast alongside his mini-budget.
The NASUWT has given a formal dispute notice to the Department for Education and other employers over its demand for a 12% pay rise for teachers, with the threat of a strike ballot if that is not met.
Liz Truss repeatedly suggested that the “international situation” was primarily responsible for the economic turmoil in the UK markets. But in a speech tonight, Huw Pill, chief economist at the Bank of England, will stress that the mini-budget is a factor, too.
Kwasi Kwarteng heightened speculation that benefits won’t be uprated in line with inflation. Asked if he would honour the commitment of the previous government, he said: “We are talking about helping people in the round. It is premature for me to come to a decision on that. But we are absolutely focused on making sure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected through what could be a challenging time.”
Labour claimed that Liz Truss “made this disastrous situation even worse” with her BBC local radio interview round this morning. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, also urged Tory MPs to join Labour and other opposition parties in calling for parliament to be recalled
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, renewed his call for the Conservative party conference to be cancelled so that parliament can be recalled.
Ian Blackford MP, the SNP’s Westminster leader, called it “utterly damning” that the government failed to commission a forecast from the OBR.
He said: “The revelation that the OBR offered to provide a forecast to the Chancellor to go alongside his fiscal statement last week, but that it was not commissioned by the Tory government is utterly damning.
“This is in spite of the OBR confirming that it was in a position to produce an updated forecast that satisfied the legal requirements of the Charter for Budget Responsibility.
“Over the past week we have witnessed the devastating impact of the Tory budget, hitting people’s mortgages, putting pensions at risk, and hammering household budgets.
“The Prime Minister and Chancellor cannot keep ducking accountability. They must set out why they did not commission economic forecasts from the OBR to accompany their disastrous budget, and they must recall Parliament urgently and reverse their reckless plans.”
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