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(Alliance News) - Consumer confidence has fallen sharply in "not encouraging news" for the UK government as households "nervously" await next month's autumn budget, according to a long-running survey.

UK consumer confidence crashed in September by the most in two-and-a-half years amid dire warnings from the new Labour government about “tough decisions” that need to be taken to fix the public finances.

But first, we turn to the UK, where consumer confidence has fallen sharply as households anticipate what Sir Keir Starmer has warned will be a “painful” Budget. The GfK consumer confidence index — a measure of how people view their personal finances and broader economic prospects — fell seven points to minus 20,

The last time the index declined so steeply was in April 2022, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine which sent energy costs soaring.