Rishi’s new age budget as Queen pulls out of COP26

It’s Budget day, so several front pages feature photographs of the chancellor, including the Times which claims Rishi Sunak is expected to almost double economic growth predictions for this year when he delivers his speech – giving him an extra £20-to-£30 billion to spend.

The Guardian says Mr Sunak will strike a “bullish” note – despite facing the threats of inflation and holes in the public finances.

The shots are “unintentionally revealing”, it argues, emphasising the distance between a “privileged multi-millionaire” and “workers facing a cost-of-living crisis the Conservatives are making worse”.

Britain “cannot tax its way to wealth”, it says, “and Mr Sunak knows this”.

Images of the chancellor vie for space on the front pages with those of the Queen following her decision to withdraw from a reception at COP26 in Glasgow next week.

The Mirror says officials “moved to dampen health fears” by releasing pictures of the Queen smiling as she carried out video calls on Tuesday – her first official engagements since her stay in hospital last week.

It says the MPs’ report sets out how more than 2,000 consultants were each paid more than £1,000 a day to work on the system which “repeatedly” failed to break transmissions and “deteriorated” just at the point when it was needed most.

It says the recent cancellation of projects is seen as evidence that the current system – of only paying operators when plants are producing electricity – is broken, so now ministers want to allow construction costs to be front-loaded on to consumer bills.

The FT notes that Mr Kwarteng also spoke of wanting to reduce the UK’s reliance on overseas developers and says Tory MPs believe the new model will help him shut out Chinese companies from future energy projects.