Rishi Sunak has said inflation is expected to hit 4 per cent in the year ahead, as he delivers his Budget speech. The Office for Budget Responsibility made the forecast at the same time that GDP will return to its pre-coronavirus level at the turn of the year, Mr Sunak said. Meanwhile, growth this year was revised up from 4 to 6.5 per cent.
The chancellor has also slashed duty on UK domestic flights, cancelled a fuel duty hike, and made sweeping changes to alcohol duty. Climate campaigners had previously urged Mr Sunak to put the environment at the heart of his Budget with the Cop26 summit just days away, but are likely to have been disappointed by the speech.
In her response, Labour’s Rachel Reeves accused the chancellor of living in a “parallel world” and failing to tackle the climate crisis. She said: “With no mention of climate in his conference speech, and the most passing of references today, we are burdened with a chancellor unwilling to meet the scale of the challenges we face.”
