Everyone in the country will be paying more tax as a result of next week’s autumn statement, Jeremy Hunt has revealed.
The chancellor said “we will be asking everyone for sacrifices” as he tries to plug a £55 billion black hole in the nation’s finances.
HuffPost UK has been told that Hunt plans to hike taxes by up to £25 billion while also slashing public spending by up to £35 billion in Thursday’s autumn statement.
Appearing on Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News, Hunt said higher earners will be expected to take on the lion’s share of the increased tax burden.
He said: “We have to recognise that people on the very lowest incomes only have so much they can give.
“We will be asking everyone for sacrifices but I think in a fair society, as we are in the UK, we need to recognise that there’s only so much you can ask for people on the very lowest incomes.
“So that will be reflected in the decisions that I take and I think that’s important because Britain is a decent country, a fair country, a compassionate country and I want that to be reflected in the decisions we take.”
But he added: “We’re all going to be paying a bit more tax, I’m afraid.”
In a separate interview with the BBC’S Laura Kuenssberg, Hunt said: “We are going to see everyone paying more tax, we’re going to see spending cuts.
“But I think it’s very important to say that we are a resilient country, we’ve faced bigger challenges in our past, and we’re also a compassionate country, so we will introduce a plan which will see us through the very choppy waters that we’re in economically.
“But we’ll make sure that we protect the most vulnerable, and in particular deal with the single biggest worry for people on low incomes, which is the rising cost of their weekly shop and rising energy prices.”