What can Jeremy Hunt do with his £13bn headroom in the autumn statement?

Chancellor could try to win votes with a tax giveaway, but seems unlikely to improve the polls or the economy

An economy going nowhere. Limited financial firepower. Polls suggesting the Conservative party on course for a wipeout at the general election. Tory MPs clamouring for tax cuts. Jeremy Hunt is under real pressure to announce a gamechanging autumn statement on Wednesday. Rarely has a chancellor been so poorly positioned to do so.

Hunt has been at the Treasury for just over a year but by the standards of the current parliament, that makes him a veteran. He is the fifth chancellor since 2019 and three of his predecessors - Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi and Kwasi Kwarteng - were so short-lived in office that they failed to produce a single budget between them.