The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement tomorrow will focus on growth and “set a path to lower taxes”, according to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Laura Trott told GB News: “What I can say is that the economy has turned a corner. You will remember where we were a year ago. It was a very difficult situation after the war in Ukraine with energy prices, inflation spiking at 11%.
“The Prime Minister and Chancellor have taken some really difficult decisions in the last year, which has meant that inflation has now halved and is 4.6%. That is great news for everybody at home who we know have been struggling with the cost of living and it means now the Chancellor is focusing tomorrow on growing the economy, making sure we are increasing the amount of supply side capacity, that's the amount that we can produce in this country.
“A part of that is a path to lower taxes because we know how important that is to everybody sitting at home.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, she continued: “What I can say is the economy is improving.
“That's because of the difficult decisions we've taken. We do feel like we're at a different point now.
“Inflation is coming down, real wages are going up, which is very, very important for everybody sitting and listening to this. We are at a different point.”
Asked about criticism of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak which emerged at the Covid enquiry, she said: “I was a backbencher at the time, but I saw a government doing its absolute best to try and protect both lives and livelihoods.
“Most people watching this programme will have got to know Rishi when he was standing up as Chancellor and announcing millions of pounds of support for people for furlough to help them to stay at home but make sure that we were protecting their incomes. Now, of course mistakes would have been made. We all know that.”
