Mr Hunt said: “I think the economy, we are seeing, has turned the corner, people are beginning to feel that.”
“That will continue during the course of this year. But the fundamentals for the UK economy, yes, are very strong indeed,” he added.
The cost of living crisis, brought about by months of double-digit inflation last year, has been tough, Mr Hunt said.
But sticking to his economic plan, along with the Bank of England’s work to control interest rates, will bring about “better times”, he insisted – in a sign of the likely economic messaging from the Tories ahead of the coming general election.
“If we stick to that plan we can see that we will have better times ahead,” he said.
He added: “We don’t pretend that it hasn’t been tough, it’s been very tough in the UK and in many other countries.
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“We now have the biggest technology industry in Europe. That is a big positive for families up and down the country in the years ahead.”
Sanctions warning for Iran
When asked about sanctions on Iran, following its strikes on Israel last weekend, Mr Hunt said he will be pushing for more to be added in his meetings with leaders of the G7 group of nations and with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“What I would say is this: The talk ten days ago was of the West drifting away from its support for Israel. But when Iran attacked Israel, Western support was rock solid.
“And if Iran takes action that destabilises the global economy through what it does in the Middle East then they will face a concerted response from Western countries,” he said.
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‘I don’t want to say anything negative about Liz Truss’
Mr Hunt declined to speak ill of former prime minister Liz Truss when asked if she was harming the Conservative Party.
“I think Liz will be the first to accept that during her time as prime minister, mistakes were made,” he said of her 49-day tenure.
During her premiership government borrowing costs soared; the pound hit a 37-year low against the dollar – making imports more expensive; mortgage rates soared and the Bank of England made an unprecedented intervention to stop pension funds collapsing.
“She appointed me as chancellor. And so, you know, I don’t want to say anything negative about Liz Truss,” Mr Hunt said.
Ireland’s prime minister has insisted the UK must respect an existing arrangement between the two countries to take back asylum seekers.
Simon Harris told Sky News the UK must honour a deal that has been in place since 2020 as a row escalates over the Irish government’s new plans to return to the UK asylum seekers who cross the border into the Republic from Northern Ireland.
Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week that more than 80% of recent arrivals in Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.
The UK government has said it will not take back asylum seekers who cross the border into Ireland “until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”.
On Tuesday morning, Irish PM Mr Harris told Sky News: “There is already an agreement in place between Ireland and Britain since 2020.
“What we’re doing is giving legal clarity in relation to that agreement which will allow us to designate the UK as a safe country again.
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“It’s also very important for people in Britain to understand that this is a two-way agreement.
“This is to ensure that refugees can be sent in both directions if their application is inadmissible.
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“We also have a legitimate expectation that agreements between our two countries are honoured.”
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said there are “operational arrangements” between the UK and Ireland but insisted there is “not a legal obligation to accept the return of asylum seekers and under those operational arrangements no asylum seekers have been returned to the UK”.
“It’s up to the UK government who we do and do not accept into the country,” he added.
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1:17
Irish PM: ‘UK must stick to migrant agreement’
The row between the two countries comes as the UK government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda came into law last week.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister and foreign secretary Micheal Martin said the threat of deportation to Rwanda was causing “fearful” migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.
Mr Harris said on Sunday Ireland would “not provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges”.
He added on Tuesday that the largest percentage of people coming to Ireland illegally recently has been from Nigeria so last week they brought in fast-track applications for people from Nigeria.
“We have every right to have our own migration policy,” he told Sky News.
“People have every expectation that it would be enforced, that it would be firm, that it would be rules-based.
“And I think we also all have a legitimate expectation that agreements between two countries are honoured.”
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0:51
‘Will the UK accept migrants back?’
A major operation by the Home Office to detain migrants across the UK in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda has begun “weeks earlier than expected”.
Ministers from the UK and Ireland met in London on Monday as part of a planned conference, involving Mr Martin and the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris.
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