New Chancellor to make emergency statement

The Government has announced that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will make a statement today, bringing forward measures from the medium-term fiscal plan to support fiscal sustainability.

Hunt, who was appointed as Chancellor on Friday after Kwasi Kwarteng was fired, will also make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon.

The announcement follows the Prime Minister’s statement on Friday, and further conversations between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor over the weekend, as the Government aims to sustain and improve public finances, underpinning economic growth.

The Chancellor will then deliver the full Medium-Term Fiscal Plan to be published alongside a forecast from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility on 31 October. The Government also confirmed that the Chancellor met with the Governor of the Bank of England and the Head of the Debt Management Office last night to brief them on the plans.

Britain’s economy is expected to shrink around 0.2% each quarter from October through to June next year. This prolonged economic decline will result in a 0.3% fall in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 as a whole, according to predictions from the EY Item Club.

The economic forecasting group has significantly downgraded its previous summer forecast which estimated the economy would grow by 1% in 2023. A combination of high energy prices, surging inflation, rising interest rates and global economic weakness have driven up the likelihood that the UK economy will face a recession until the middle of next year.