Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has warned Conservative MPs that some tax rises may be needed to “correct” the public finances after the coronavirus crisis. But he also said he was not proposing “a horror show of tax rises with no end in sight”. (See 3.01pm.) He spoke out after days of media speculation about what will be in his autumn budget, with some reports claiming that the tax burden may have to rise by £30bn. The crisis has pushed the national debt above £2tn for the first time, and in July the Office for Budget Responsibility put the budget deficit (the annual shortfall, rather than the total historic debt owed by the UK) at £128bn. Although the budget is still many weeks away, an intense debate is already under way in the Conservative party as to what should be in it. Earlier Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, suggested Sunak should be cutting taxes, not raising them. Labour has said it does not support tax increases now. (See 1.42pm.) The government has reimposed lockdown restrictions on half a million people in Greater Manchester just 12 hours after they were lifted, after a rise in infections. Ironically, the announcement was made during PMQs, just after Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, and Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, taunted Johnson about the many coronavirus U-turns he had already performed. Labour has responded furiously after Boris Johnson accused Keir Starmer of complicity in tolerance for the IRA, pointing to the prime minister’s acceptance of the former Brexit party MEP Claire Fox as a peer despite her prior support for the IRA’s Warrington bomb. Boris Johnson has doubled down on his refusal to meet a group of families bereaved by coronavirus, claiming the group are in litigation against the government to bring about an independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic. Ofqual’s senior leadership told MPs that Ofqual should not be blamed for the fiasco that engulfed this summer’s exams in England, and accused the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, of causing the weekend of chaos that followed the publication of A-level results. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he is “worried and disappointed” over the UK’s approach to the talks, fuelling fears that the UK will leave the bloc in January without a deal. A data specialist recruited to the civil service following Dominic Cummings’ call for “weirdos and misfits” to work for the UK government was sacked recently after posting on social media that police should use live rounds against Black Lives Matter demonstrators, the Guardian can reveal. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary in charge of the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has moved to quash reports that the government will ditch its statutory commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on aid. The Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, is under intense pressure to quit after senior MSPs said the party faced “catastrophic defeat” in next year’s Holyrood elections. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.