Question Time viewers ship brutal verdict on Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement

Just one particular person within the viewers of final night time’s BBC Question Time raised their hand when requested in the event that they had been optimistic in regards to the Autumn Statement.

Presenter Fiona Bruce posed the query in “the interest of balance” after a number of individuals chimed in to criticise the Chancellor’s monetary announcement this week. She mentioned: “Does anyone here – how can I put it – feel a bit more optimistic about the coming years following yesterday’s statement?” Just one particular person raised their hand.

One viewers member mentioned the Tories had been telling “lies” by claiming the Autumn Statement would assist individuals pay their payments. “I work in a public sector job. I earn just above minimum wage, and yet I rely on a Universal Credit top up to be able to pay my bills. The £400 you say I’m going to be getting back from the National Insurance cut is a third of what I rely on from the universal credit payments across the year/ So you’re not helping me at all,” the council employee mentioned.

“You’re just telling lies to make yourself feel better. You’re not helping. It’s helping you a bit… it’s not helping me enough. It’s not going to make any difference at all to me being able to pay my bills over a year.”

A self-employed girl within the viewers mentioned scrapping the Class 2 National Insurance for the self-employed would imply saving £3.45 every week. “It’s £180 a year. Me personally, I don’t think that’s particularly high. I’d much prefer to have gone to the NHS personally. I mean it’s it’s a waste. It’s a waste of legislation. It’s £180 per person – it’s ridiculous.”

A person from the viewers, who works within the NHS, mentioned the £20billion tax cuts was public sector funding “being lost”. “I also work in the public sector within the Health Service, and the ability for the health service to make use of that funds has just been stripped away and I think it’s inappropriate and untimely,” he mentioned. Another girl mentioned: “How is raising the minimum wage, which actually the government doesn’t pay [but] business has to pay, help businesses?”

The one man who put his hand as much as say he was optimistic in regards to the Autumn Statement mentioned: “The way I look at things is that over the past 5-10 years, the country has had some massive economic storm.” The viewers member, who mentioned he runs a producing firm in Hertfordshire, mentioned individuals wanted to know there was a value to furlough handouts in the course of the pandemic or handouts to assist with vitality payments.

“The reality is that was all borrowed money, and the reality is that money has to be paid back,” he mentioned. “So yeah, it’s tough. It’s tough for us and it’s tough for many, many other people. But I do think that actually you’ve got to be realistic and recognise that money has a cost and you have to pay it back and that’s where I’m coming from.”

Science Minister Andrew Griffiths, who was a Treasury Minister till earlier this month, mentioned: “The thing we found out this week from the forecasts is that the UK economy has been more resilient than everybody forecast and that’s given the Chancellor, the government, the chance to make some decisions and I think those are long term decisions.” But he added: “We’re not out of the woods in the economy, which is why we’ve got to strike a careful balance.”

Labour’s Shadow Minister for Work Alison McGovern mentioned: “I mean, look the difference between our parties is the record. And we have seen today that this parliament will in fact be the first where incomes are lower at the end of it than they were at the beginning. I think that that is a shocking record.”