GovWire

Good afternoon,

My conviction that this country needs to go for growth is rooted in my personal experience.

I know what its like to grow up somewhere that isnt feeling the benefits of growth.

I saw what that meant and I am not prepared to accept that for our country.

I want a country where people can get good jobs, new businesses can set up and families can afford an even better life.

Thats why from day one Ive been ambitious for growth.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the potential of this great country has been held back by persistently weak growth.

I want to deliver a low tax, high wage, high growth economy.

Its what I was elected by my party to do.

That mission remains.

People across this country rightly want stability.

That is why we acted to support businesses and households with their energy costs this winter.

Its also the case that global economic conditions are worsening due to the continuation of Putins appalling war in Ukraine.

And on top of this, debt was amassed helping people through the Covid pandemic.

But it is clear that parts of our mini budget went further and faster than markets were expecting.

So the way we are delivering our mission right now has to change.

We need to act now to reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline.

I have therefore decided to keep the increase in corporation tax that was planned by the previous government.

This will raise 18 billion per year.

It will act as a down-payment on our full Medium-Term Fiscal Plan which will be accompanied by a forecast from the independent OBR.

We will do whatever is necessary to ensure debt is falling as a share of the economy in the medium term.

We will control the size of the state to ensure that taxpayers money is always well spent.

Our public sector will become more efficient to deliver world-class services for the British people.

And spending will grow less rapidly than previously planned.

I met the former Chancellor earlier today. I was incredibly sorry to lose him.

He is a great friend and he shares my vision to set this country on the path to growth.

Today I have asked Jeremy Hunt to become the new Chancellor.

He is one of the most experienced and widely respected government ministers and parliamentarians.

And he shares my convictions and ambitions for our country.

He will deliver the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan at the end of this month.

He will see through the support we are providing to help families and businesses including our Energy Price Guarantee thats protecting people from higher energy bills this winter.

And he will drive our mission to go for growth, including taking forward the supply side reforms that our country needs.

We owe it to the next generation to improve our economic performance to deliver higher wages, new jobs and better public services, and to ease the burden of debt.

I have acted decisively today because my priority is ensuring our countrys economic stability.

As Prime Minister, I will always act in the national interest.

This is always my first consideration.

I want to be honest, this is difficult.

But we will get through this storm.

And we will deliver the strong and sustained growth that can transform the prosperity of our country for generations to come.