Everyone will pay more tax, says chancellor Jeremy Hunt ahead of spending cut Autumn Statement

The chancellor has said everyone will pay more tax as he prepares to announce a swathe of spending cuts to see the UK out of recession.

Jeremy Hunt said people will notice the changes because “these are difficult decisions”.

Speaking ahead of his Autumn Statement on Thursday, he said: “We are going to see everyone paying more tax, we’re going to see spending cuts.”

He said the UK was a “resilient” and “compassionate” country that had faced bigger challenges in the past.

“We will Introduce a plan that will see us through the very choppy waters that we’re in economically,” he said.

“But we’ll make sure that we protect the most vulnerable,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Hunt will make the financial statement in the House of Commons this week and outline to MPs how he intends to reduce the country’s budget deficit.

The deficit is predicted to have risen to around £50bn following the previous estimate of just short of £44bn at the end of June, according to Office for National Statistics figures.

Hunt said his aim was to make the recession the UK is currently in as “short and shallow as possible”.

“Inflation is much higher than it should be and that is destabilising people’s family finances as well as being very bad for businesses and the economy,” he said.

“People will notice because these are difficult decisions but they will also see there is a plan to get through this.

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that decisions taken in the Autumn Budget must not harm the most vulnerable people.

The First Minister spoke with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Hunt ahead of the spending plans being set out on November 17.