Will Jeremy Hunt’s Budget event be as hideous as advertised?

Tax rises are seemingly on the way, but we knew that. What’s going on here is a classic softening-up exercise, writes James Moore

If he’s savvy, Hunt might create a little extra wiggle room for himself by clobbering the energy giants along with us too (PA Wire)

The drumbeat of negativity about what the government will need to do to put the UK's public finances on a more stable footing has been more or less constant ever since Liz Truss yanked the government gear stick into a hard reverse and invited Jeremy Hunt to jam the throttle into the floor.

“Treasury warns of tax rises to fill financial hole,” is in the headlines, pumping up the volume with the government’s fiscal event looming later this month. “Treasury sources” have told multiple outlets that across-the-board tax hikes are “inevitable”.

“It is going to be rough,” they reportedly said. Needless to say, spending cuts are also on the table.