Jeremy Hunt’s autumn Budget: What he said – and what he really meant

Our chief political commentator imagines what the chancellor was thinking as he delivered his fiscal event

What Jeremy Hunt said: Our priorities are stability, growth and public services. We also protect the vulnerable because to be British is to be compassionate.

What he really meant: We are a New Labour government.

What he said: Today we respond to an international crisis with British values.

What he meant: Every country around the world has problems, but we British have a genius for making them worse.

What he said: We are honest about the challenges and we are fair in our solutions.

What he meant: Liz Truss sold you fairytales and Labour are pretending that her tax cuts for the rich are still happening.

What he said: The furlough scheme, the vaccine rollout and the response of the NHS did our country proud, but they all have to be paid for.

What he meant: You all thought it was a good idea at the time. But nothing in life comes free. Here is the bill.

What he said: The Office for Budget Responsibility today lays out starkly the impact of global headwinds on the UK economy and I’m enormously grateful to Richard Hughes and his team for that thorough work.

What he meant: I am enormously grateful to the OBR for saying none of this is my fault.

What he said: The OBR confirms that because of our plans, the recession is shallower and inflation is reduced. Unemployment is also low, with about 70,000 jobs saved as a result of our decisions today.

What he meant: I am enormously grateful to the OBR for saying we will save jobs. Put that in Labour’s pipe and let them smoke it.

What he said: As Conservatives we do not leave our debt for the next generation.

What he meant: Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng were out of their minds.

What he said: Anyone who says there are easy answers is not being straight with the British people.

What he meant: Truss and Kwarteng were also dishonest.

What he said: We want low taxes and sound money. But Conservatives know sound money has to come first, because inflation eats away at the pound in people’s pockets.

What he meant: I will say it again. Conservative Party members who voted for Truss should hang their heads in shame.

What he said: Although my decisions today do lead to a substantial tax increase, we have not raised headline rates of taxation.

What he meant: Note that the Conservative manifesto for 2019 said: “We promise not to raise the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT.” So those flat-earther Tories accusing us of breaking the manifesto can take a running jump.

What he said: Tax as a percentage of GDP will increase by just 1 per cent over the next five years.

What he meant: But you can still bang on about the tax burden at a 70-year high.

What he said: Asking more from those who have more means that the first difficult decision I take on tax is to reduce the threshold at which the 45p rate becomes payable, from £150,000 a year to £125,140. Those earning £150,000 or more will pay just over £1,200 pounds more in tax every year.

What he meant: Rachel Reeves, here is your dead fox.

What he said: Because the OBR forecast half of all new vehicles will be electric by 2025, to make our motoring tax system fairer, I decided that from then electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from vehicle excise duty.

What he meant: Anyone who bought an electric car because of the tax advantage has been stung. But not until after the election. Vote for us.

What he said: Members opposite are getting excited about windfall taxes but can I just say that any such tax should be temporary, not deter investment and recognise the cyclical nature of energy businesses.

What he meant: I have shot another Labour fox.

What he said: The OBR forecasts show a significant shock to public finances, so it won't be possible to return to the 0.7 per cent target [for foreign aid] until the fiscal situation allows. We remain fully committed to that target.

What he meant: We remain fully committed to not meeting it.

What he said: I look forward to working closely with my right Honourable friend, the member for Sutton Coldfield, now rightly back in his place in cabinet, to make sure we continue to play a leadership role in tackling global poverty.

What he meant: Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, is our hostage from the compassionate, pro-aid wing of the Tory party.

What he said: I have appointed Sir Michael Barber to advise me and the education secretary on the implementation of our skills reform programme.

What he meant: Sir Michael was head of Tony Blair’s delivery unit. We are heirs to New Labour.

What he said: I've asked former health secretary Patricia Hewitt to help me and the health secretary achieve that [NHS reform] by advising us on how to make sure the new integrated care boards for local NHS bodies operate efficiently.

What he meant: We are heirs to New Labour.

What he said: Let us start with a difficult message for the party opposite: you cannot borrow your way to growth.

What he meant: This is a message for the knuckleheads on the benches behind me.

What he said: I am not cutting a penny from our capital budgets in the next two years.

What he meant: I am allowing inflation to cut our capital budgets by stealth.

What he said: Using our Brexit freedoms, I can confirm our supply side transformation: by the end of next year, we will decide and announce changes to EU regulations. I’ve asked the chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance, who did such a brilliant job in the pandemic, to lead our work on how to do this.

What he meant: I have no idea how to do this. I have set up a committee.

What he said: That means from April 2023, the hourly rate [of the minimum wage] will £10.42 … It is the largest increase in the UK national living wage ever.

What he meant: It has gone up a lot because inflation is shocking.

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What he said: In April the state pension will increase in line with inflation, an £870 increase, which represents the biggest ever increase in the state pension.

What he meant: Inflation is at a record high under this government.

What he said: There may be a recession made in Russia, but there will be recovery made in Britain.

What he meant: I blame Vladimir Putin, Liz Truss and the Labour Party in that order.

What he said: You don’t need to choose either a strong economy or good public services. With the Conservatives, and only with the Conservatives, you get both.

What he meant: New Labour. Tony Blair was right. Vote for us.