Wednesday briefing: What’s ‘on the table’ for Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt addresses delegates at the annual Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, northern England, on October 2, 2023. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Good morning.

In a few hours, Jeremy Hunt will deliver the autumn statement, and because the UK is on track to borrow less than expected, the chancellor has more room to play with than initially anticipated. So, despite months of insistence from both the chancellor and the prime minister that there will be no tax cuts for fear that there would be inflationary consequences, Hunt has hinted rather coyly in interviews that “everything is on the table”, leaving many to predict that some kind of tax cut is on the horizon.