Hello and Shots are Spectators Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Katie Paul's and this is the

Sunday roundup. This week the politics shows are focused on the economy as

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt prepares to make his autumn statement on Wednesday.

Hunter signaled he may deliver tax cuts after all and said everything is on the table.

Laura Koonsburg pointed out that the tax burden is at an all-time high, despite the Conservatives being in power

for 13 years, and asked if Hunt regretted the situation. Hunt admitted he'd been forced to make

difficult decisions because of the pandemic and subsequent high inflation and

said he believed lower taxes are essential for dynamic thriving economies.

You haven't changed the level at which people start paying more tax, The tax bans. Look at this, more than 2, 1.6 million more people,

including maybe senior teachers or senior nurses, are now in the higher rate of income tax and more than 2 million

people have started paying basic rate tax who weren't paying it. That is massive and

it was a conservative government that's done it.

Well I don't pretend that a year ago Laura I did have to take very difficult decisions, difficult decisions,

particularly for a conservative Chancellor.

And what I will say is that there is a difference between me and Rachel Reeves, who you'll be talking

to later, because I do believe lower taxes are essential to a dynamic thriving economy and I do want us to go on the path of lower taxes.

Why is that? Because if you look around the world the most dynamic thriving energetic economies are in North America and Asia and not in Europe.

Conservative Chancellor have been seeing they quite fancy the idea of low taxes for four years and

Europe presiding over an economy where taxes at its highest level ever

and ordinary working people are paying more and more and more income tax.

Do you regret that situation and do you think anyone who voted for

you in 2019 expected there was going to be this additional 50 billion

...