Hunt puts Britain on autumn poll alert with pledge to cut more taxes

JEREMY HUNT put Britain on notice for an autumn general election as he sought to create a “big divide” between the Tories and Labour on taxes.

- Nicholas Cecil, Rachael Burford and Jitendra Joshi

The Chancellor argued that the Conservatives would cut taxes, if they are re-elected, and that Labour would not do so. Rishi Sunak had already signalled that the “working assumption” was for an election in the second half of the year.

But Mr Hunt narrowed this down to a few months, suggesting it would not be in late summer or early winter.

Asked following yesterday’s Budget whether he was planning another fiscal event before the election, Mr Hunt told Times Radio: “No, but if there’s an autumn election, which is the working assumption, then theoretically it would be possible to have one.”

His comments appeared to all but rule out a snap election in May. The Chancellor left the door open for more pre-election giveaways after delivering another 2p cut in National Insurance in the Budget, having done the same in the Autumn Statement.

Mr Hunt stressed the combination of the two moves would mean 27 million employees will get an average NI cut of £900 a year and two million self-employed people will get a tax cut averaging £650.

But the UK’s overall tax burden is still set to rise to the highest level since 1948, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).