announced by his predecessor, kwasi kwarteng, in last month s mini budgetjust three weeks ago. in an emergency statement this morning, he abandoned indefinitely the planned ip cut in the basic income tax that was due to come next year. help with energy bills will now only last until next april. instead of for two years, and then that will be reviewed. today, jeremy hunt claimed all of those announcements will save £32 billion a year, but he also warned that there are going to be more difficult decisions ahead on tax and spending to cut government debt. he will be addressing mps in the commons later this afternoon, some time after lipm. before then, there will be an urgent question in there will be an urgent question in the commons asked by sir keir starmer. it will not be liz truss responding to that, it will instead be penny mordaunt. so plenty ahead in the commons. in terms of the market reaction, jeremy hunt said that he had sought to reassure the markets this morning and
discussions, of course. let s talk about yourjob as discussions, of course. let s talk about your job as financial secretary to the treasury. we know the government market was committed to keeping a lid on pay. the government makos said that it would adhere to the regulations of independent pay bodies, whose job adhere to the regulations of independent pay bodies, whosejob it is to set pay. if they recommend increasing pay for public sector workers by 6%, as we expect, will workers by 6%, as we expect, will workers get it? the workers by 6%, as we expect, will workers aet it? u. . ., , workers get it? the recommendations have been received. workers get it? the recommendations have been received. of workers get it? the recommendations have been received. of course, - workers get it? the recommendations have been received. of course, we - have been received. of course, we are looking through them very carefully and we will announce our decision in due course. but this is against the
but we do have to be fiscally responsible about this, which is why we had to make difficult decisions. i m asking about the timing of what that might mean, your boss, jeremy hunt, seemed to indicate very clearly yesterday that people can absolutely forget about the idea of tax cuts in the autumn, the application being, you might not be able to promise them for the election. has able to promise them for the election. , , , able to promise them for the election. . , , ., election. as jeremy set out yesterday. election. as jeremy set out yesterday, our election. as jeremy set out yesterday, our priority - election. as jeremy set out yesterday, our priority has| election. as jeremy set out l yesterday, our priority has to election. as jeremy set out - yesterday, our priority has to be tackling inflation. that is the quickest way we can help people make their wage packets go further. and so this is why the prime minister, he was talking about this two years before anybody else, that
i think it is inconceivable he will put more money on the table because if he does he would have to go back to the other unions who settled and they would say, why don t we get the money too? as well as pay restitution i agree with the independent report of the institute of this global studies, at the institute for fiscal studies, they have lost the value on their wage packets. you would have to ask why, i think it started well before covid, there were 40,000 nurse vacancies for covid, and if you look at wages and say they had slipped over ten years, you had to ask what were the bma and the rcn doing for ten years? they have been asleep at the wheel. train drivers are earning £70,000 a year, fine, good luck to the train drivers, the nurses have been abandoned and this is the difficulty because when you get into