Jeremy Hunt says people are feeling "betrayed" by Rachel Reeves' Autumn Budget, after the chancellor raised taxes by £40bn, the biggest increase in a generation. The shadow chancellor claims Reeves has "broken her word", adding, "if you want to do that, you should say so before the election". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Look, the IMF are absolutely right to say you have to put public finances on a sustainable basis.
00:05And that is the central challenge that any Chancellor would have faced.
00:11How do we avoid austerity cuts in public services whilst at the same time not damaging economic growth?
00:18Now, unfortunately, she's chosen to raise taxes, which the Office for Budget Responsibility,
00:24the watchdog, say will mean 50,000 fewer jobs or the equivalent of in the economy.
00:30We'd have found that money for the NHS a different way.
00:33We'd have done welfare reform.
00:35If you can reduce the number of people claiming welfare to the levels before the pandemic,
00:41that saves £34 billion. Those are really difficult decisions.
00:45Don't want to pretend they're easy at all.
00:47But if you do that harder path, it's good for the economy.
00:51It gets people into work.
00:52It's good for individuals, much better for people to be in work than out of work.
00:57And you can avoid these very damaging tax rises,
01:00which are going to mean lower living standards, lower wages for millions of people.
01:05If you look at their forecasts, they actually are lower over the next five years.
01:11They then say it could lead to higher growth after five years if this level of investment is sustained,
01:18in brackets, if taxes go up even further.
01:22But here's the real point. It's a completely legitimate choice to put up taxes.
01:27I happen to think it's the wrong one, but it's a legitimate choice.
01:31But if you want to do that, you should say so before the election.
01:35And people are feeling very betrayed this morning
01:37because the Chancellor said 30 times this year before the election that she had no plan.
01:43She wouldn't increase tax outside what was explicitly written in the Labour manifesto.
01:48She's broken her word.
01:50And when people experience lower living standards, lower wages as a result,
01:56they're going to feel very angry indeed.