So where IS that £30billion, Jeremy?

So where IS that £30billion, Jeremy? New PM Rishi Sunak jokes about the war chest he built up when he was head of the Treasury as his Chancellor races to fix black hole in the public purse with November Budget

‘War chest’ built up by higher-than-expected tax receipts has been wiped out by months of political chaos
Prime Minister scrutinised financial documents given to him by treasury officials on Thursday
He asked where the £30 billion surplus which was there after he left treasury after reading the documents

Rishi Sunak has asked officials to account for the missing £30 billion surplus that was left in the Government coffers when he was at the Treasury.

The ‘war chest’ built up by higher-than-expected tax receipts earlier this year has been wiped out by months of political chaos – and now he and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are having to find £50 billion in tax rises and spending cuts to steady the economy.

When they met on Thursday to discuss next month’s Autumn Statement, the new Prime Minister scrutinised financial documents brought to him by Treasury officials, before announcing: ‘When I left the Treasury there was a £30 billion surplus. Where is it?’

Mr Sunak quit No 11 in July as Boris Johnson’s Government collapsed. Since then, soaring energy costs and interest rates, compounded by the adverse market reaction to Liz Truss’s mini-Budget, have turned the surplus into a shortfall of more than £40 billion.

Now he and Mr Sunak are moving to close that gap and reassure the financial markets.

Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Croydon, the Prime Minister said he would act to ‘protect the most vulnerable’ as he tightens the nation’s belt. But he said the eye-watering package was necessary to bring inflation under control and limit the looming rise in mortgage payments’

Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, right, Mr Sunak calls on the country to channel the Blitz spirit and ‘summon our deepest reserves of strength, spirit and ingenuity’ to tackle what he describes as ‘a profound economic crisis’. He says: ‘That is the Britain that is admired around the world, it’s the Britain I love and am proud of – and it’s that spirit that will get us through the challenges before us today.’

The Prime Minister references his predecessor’s handling of the economy by saying: ‘We need to fix the mistakes that have been made so we can restore confidence and economic stability.

‘There will be no easy choices. We will sometimes have to take the difficult path, so we don’t leave our children and grandchildren with a debt that we were too weak to pay ourselves’. But he says he will act ‘with fairness as my lodestar’.

Mr Sunak makes clear in his article that his main priority is to tackle the ‘No 1 enemy’ inflation and to ‘get our borrowing and our debt back on a sustainable path’. He adds: ‘If we can control inflation then we will be able to start getting those soaring energy bills under control and reduce the cost of the weekly food shop.

‘It will also limit as far as possible the increase in interest rates and mortgage payments.’

With inflation at a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent – more than five times its two per cent target – the Bank of England is this week set to raise interest rates from 2.25 to three per cent. It would be the largest increase since Black Wednesday in 1992, when the UK had to leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Ten months ago interest rates were just 0.1 per cent. Mr Hunt is expected to announce an extension to the current freeze on income tax thresholds in his Commons statement on November 17. Freezing these until 2027/28 would net the Treasury an extra £30 billion in ‘stealth’ taxes, dragging an estimated three million workers into higher tax bands.

With inflation at a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent – more than five times its two per cent target – the Bank of England is this week set to raise interest rates from 2.25 to three per cent

The only Government departments guaranteed to be safe from cuts are health, because of the fears of a winter beds crisis, and defence, because of the war in Ukraine. It means other departments face punishing double-digit percentage cuts

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks with members of the media as he visits Croydon University Hospital on October 28, 2022

The Centre for Economics and Business Research predicts that with a freeze the number of earners paying the top 45p tax rate – which applies to incomes over £150,000 – will rise to 850,000 in 2027 compared to 400,000 in 2020.

It also means that the number of workers paying the 40p rate, which applies to incomes of more than £50,271, would rise to 7.7 million by 2026, compared to 4.6 million if the thresholds had not been frozen.

Mr Hunt is considering abolishing the ‘triple-lock’ guarantee on pensions, although the importance of the ‘grey vote’ to the Conservatives means he will be reluctant to risk the political fallout.

Officials refuse to call Suella error ‘honest’

By Glen Owen and Claire Ellicott for the Mail On Sunday

Home Secretary Suella Braverman last night faced fresh questions over her conduct after it emerged Whitehall advisers refused to allow her ‘mistake’ in sending an official document to a Tory MP to be described as ‘honest’.

Ms Braverman was reappointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week – just six days after she left Liz Truss’s Cabinet when she was found to have sent Sir John Hayes a document she claimed was a draft of a written ministerial statement. It was only discovered because she copied in someone she believed was Sir John’s wife.

Now The Mail on Sunday has established that when Ms Truss was drafting her letter in response to Ms Braverman’s resignation, the then Prime Minister initially intended to describe her actions as an ‘honest mistake’. But members of No 10’s Proprietary and Ethics Team removed the term because, according to a source, ‘they didn’t think she had been honest’.

While these discussions over the wording were being held, Ms Braverman dropped her incendiary letter in which she suggested Ms Truss take responsibility and resign.

The revelation comes amid claims that officials burst into tears when Ms Braverman’s reappointment was announced, with some asking to move departments. Members of her close protection team are also said to have requested transfers.

Staff in the Home Office are said to have called her a ‘headbanger’ because of her hardline stance on immigration. Ms Braverman recently blocked Channel migrants from being moved out of an ‘overcrowded’ detention centre against legal advice from officials and junior Ministers. There are also suggestions that the Home Office is planning to cut the amount that migrants receive, which is currently set at £40.85 per person per week.

Labour will attempt to force the Government to share security and risk assessments related to Ms Braverman in a vote in Parliament this week.

RISHI SUNAK: We face huge challenges but the spirit of our great nation will help carry us towards a new age of optimism

By Rishi Sunak for the Mail On Sunday

We know that Britain is at its best in tough times. When we are tested – from the Blitz to the pandemic – we keep calm and carry on, we step up and help each other out, we summon our deepest reserves of strength, spirit and ingenuity to face the problem and find new ways forward.

That is the Britain that is admired around the world, it’s the Britain I love and am proud of – and it’s that spirit that will get us through the challenges before us today.

Our country is facing a profound economic crisis. We’re still reeling from the aftershocks of a pandemic which all but broke the global economy, as well as our own.

Putin’s unexpected and despicable war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains all over the world, pushing up the price every family pays to heat their home. And we need to fix the mistakes that have been made so we can restore confidence and economic stability.

And rebuilding our economy is vital not just at home, but abroad too. Our influence in the world, our ability to stand up to Putin and be a force for good, is going to be in large part based on the strength of our economy. We need to rebuild now.

As I said on the steps of Downing Street, this will mean difficult decisions. As a Government, we won’t be able to do everything we want to right now, and there will be no easy choices. We will sometimes have to take the difficult path, so we don’t leave our children and grandchildren with a debt that we were too weak to pay ourselves.

But in rising to this moment and facing these tough decisions, I am filled with a sense of optimism about what we can achieve.

Our first challenge is to tackle inflation because it is the No 1 enemy. High inflation means bills are higher, everyday items cost more and family budgets become more and more squeezed.

So to grip inflation we will get our borrowing and our debt back on a sustainable path.

While it will mean difficult choices, if we can control inflation then we will be able to start getting those soaring energy bills under control and reduce the cost of the weekly food shop. It will also limit as far as possible the increase in interest rates and mortgage payments.

We will build a stronger NHS and that work is well under way. On Friday, I visited Croydon Hospital where more elective surgeries are taking place now than they were pre-Covid. It’s a stunning example of the right infrastructure and investment being put in place to tackle the Covid backlogs

All these things will help families and businesses get through this winter – together with the help we are already providing, including through the energy price guarantee.

I will approach these difficult decisions with fairness as my lodestar. Of course, there are limits, now more than ever. But just as I set up the Covid furlough scheme that saved 11 million people’s jobs and kept millions of small businesses afloat, so I will bring that same compassion to protecting the most vulnerable today. You saw me do that as Chancellor and you will see the same approach from me as Prime Minister.

And once we deal with these immediate issues, we can begin to fulfil the promise of that 2019 manifesto. People across Britain voted Conservative in that Election – in many cases for the first time – because they could see how the mission to level up our whole country would improve their lives and the life chances of their children.

Levelling up was a promise of opportunity and hope. That you could take pride in where you lived, you could have the best education for your kids at your doorstep, and high-quality public services there for you when you need them.

The Government that I lead will deliver on that promise.

We now need to make sure that is happening across the country. We’re providing record NHS funding and tackling the current backlog, but we will work even harder to ensure you and your loved ones will always get the care you need and deserve.

We will deliver world-class education, so you can be sure that your children will have the support to meet their potential, no matter where they are born.

We will put 20,000 more police on our streets, cutting crime and making our streets safer for our children to walk home at night.

We’ll control our borders, tackling illegal immigration and ending the tragedy that has seen so many innocent lives lost in small boats at the hands of cruel people-smugglers.

We’ll protect our precious natural environment, because the green fields of our land are an inheritance worth preserving for our children and grandchildren.

We will put 20,000 more police on our streets, cutting crime and making our streets safer for our children to walk home at night

And we will act in the national interest to do everything we can to build the UK’s energy security, including by investing in renewables and nuclear energy.

As we level up our whole United Kingdom, we will build an economy that modernises and embraces the opportunities of Brexit, where businesses invest, innovate and create jobs.

And as we stand up for our values in the world, so we will remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine and continue to work with our allies around the world to tackle injustice and protect democracy. After all that we have been through over these recent years, I fully appreciate how hard things are. I know that people are worried, even frightened, by the uncertainty of the future. While I can’t make every problem go away, I will do my utmost to make sure that we set our country on a path to a better, brighter future.

And together I believe we really can achieve incredible things. I have a fantastic team around the Cabinet table with me and I know that they all have the country’s best interests at heart and will work night and day to deliver for you

I also know how much work I have to do to restore trust and to put integrity, professionalism and accountability back at the heart of everything we do. I get it and I’m going to fix it.

The challenge we face as a country is like nothing we have seen before, and I want to be honest about that from the start. But I’m not daunted or deterred by the scale of the challenge.

I will work day in, day out to deliver for you. To earn your trust. To put your needs above politics. To bring stability to your lives.

The confidence and determination that are the hallmarks of our great nation will carry us through the tough times and towards a new age of hope and optimism.

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