Rishi Sunak news latest: PM justifies tax rises as he faces Tory rebellion over Jeremy Hunt’s plan

The UK’s immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, has said that immigrants must be housed in “simple, functional” spaces rather than “luxury” rooms.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said that a “chronic shortage of acceptable accommodation” for “record numbers” of migrants has led to the government using expensive hotels, adding to the cost for taxpayers.

“Human decency has to be accompanied by hard-headed common sense: illegal immigrants are not entitled to luxury hotels,” he wrote.

“Conditions in the UK are almost always better than in neighbouring countries, which helps explain why the UK is a destination of choice for economic migrants on the continent ‘asylum shopping’.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has accepted that Brexit has imposed “costs” on the UK, but insisted he did not believe EU withdrawal would make Britain poorer in the long run.

Challenged by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Hunt did not deny that the UK economy had grown less strongly since the formal departure date almost three years ago than it would have done if Britain had remained in the European trading bloc.

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Matt Hancock has said that being voted leader of the “I’m A Celebrity” campsite “more than makes up for” losing to Boris Johnson in the 2019 Tory Party leadership election.

The 44-year-old added: “Obviously, it’s a great honour and privilege to be camp leader. I want to thank everybody who voted for me.”

Last week, Mr Hancock also asked for forgiveness from his campmates and said that he was “really looking for is a bit of forgiveness” over his Covid lockdown actions.

The head of the Confederation of British Industry, a prominent business lobby group, has urged Jeremy Hunt to make “tough political choices” to allow more overseas workers.

Appealing to the government just days ahead of the autumn statement, the CBI said that the move will help companies struggling with staff shortages and the looming recession.

Tony Danker, the director general of the CBI, said its members agreed to “tough fiscal choices” on spending and tax.CBI warned that sectors including hospitality, construction, and manufacturing are suffering from the worst staff shortages.

Business will go into “hibernation” in a “decade of no growth” unless chancellor Jeremy Hunt matches tax rises in the upcoming mini-Budget with moves to relax rules on immigration, planning and regulations, the CBI has warned.

Failure to take action to tackle labour shortages will be “damaging in the short and long term”, the business organisation’s director general Tony Danker said.

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Rishi Sunak has pledged to deliver on market expectations with this week’s autumn budget as his Chancellor warned everyone will need to pay “a bit more tax” to stabilise the economy.

The Prime Minister said Jeremy Hunt will unveil measures on Thursday to “put our public finances on a sustainable trajectory” after investors were spooked by his predecessor’s £45 billion tax-cutting bonanza.

The statement is expected to include painful public spending cuts and tax hikes to plug a black hole in the nation’s finances.

Mr Hunt earlier said “sacrifices” were required across the board to get the economy back on track.

Read the full story by Amy Gibbons here:

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, will sign an agreement with French interior minister Gerald Darmanin today to ramp up efforts to stop migrant crossings in small boats in the Channel.

On Friday last week, foreign secretary James Cleverly and Catherine Colonna, his French counterpart, issued a statement stressing the “urgency of tackling all forms of illegal migration”.

Under the new agreement that Ms Braverman will sign in Paris today, the amount the UK pays France to cover the cost of increased patrols at their end will increase from about £55m a year to £63m.

This year so far 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats according to the latest government data. Last year, the number stood at 28,526.

Rishi Sunak said that Vladimir Putin’s no-show at the summit means he is not even attempting to explain his actions, despite being “responsible for so much bloodshed in Ukraine”.

Mr Sunak wrote in the Telegraph that “we will not let our economic future be held hostage by the actions of a rogue state – and nor will our allies”.The prime minister arrived in Bali today for the summit.

Rishi Sunak has said that the government must follow through on its promise of tax rises and spending cuts in this week’s autumn statement or risk a market backlash destabilising the UK economy.

The prime minister is facing the threat of rebellion from backbench Conservative MPs angry at Jeremy Hunt’s announcement that everyone in the UK will pay more tax as a result of the fiscal policies he is set to unveil on Thursday.

But Mr Sunak said that the chancellor has no choice but to deliver on the expectations of the international markets that he will put Britain’s finances on a sustainable path.

Read the full story by Andrew Woodcock here: