Jeremy Hunt will take a wrecking ball to ‘lame duck’ Liz Truss’s economic policies today in a frantic bid to calm the markets, as Torie’s warn she must be gone in days.
In an extraordinary 6 am statement, the Treasury said the new Chancellor will announce an overhaul of the catastrophic mini Budget within hours rather than waiting until Halloween.
He’s expected to ditch plans to knock 1p off the basic rate of tax, one of the Prime Minister’s flagship measures, but there’s speculation he will go much further, with some believing he will reverse stamp duty reductions, with only the cut to national insurance looking safe, all legislation has all but cleared Parliament.
The theatrical intervention, which sent the Pound spiking, comes as ministers raced to fill a £72 billion void in the public finances after Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal package sparked a total meltdown, but despite jettisoning her closest ally Liz Truss is still looking in serious trouble. Despite Work and Pensions Secretary Chloe Smith having been slated to do broadcast interviews this morning, no Cabinet minister came out to shore up her position.
Jeremy Hunt is being openly described as the ‘de facto PM’ while about 100 MPs are said to have written to 1922 chief Graham Brady, who returns from holiday today, urging him to change party rules so the premier can be ousted.
Jeremy Hunt, who yesterday insisted the Prime Minister was still in control despite forcing her to ditch her tax-cutting agenda, is expected to speak on live TV at around 11 am setting out his plans in the hope that markets will calm down and prevent further collapse in the value of UK Bonds, known as gilts.
He will then make an address to the House of Commons at 3.30 pm, in which he’s expected to announce U-turns in cuts to the basic rate of income tax and corporation tax.
With more reversal now anticipated, the pound increased dashingly against the dollar and the euro this morning with all eyes on how the gilts market moves when the market opens in London at 8 am.
It comes as Tory MPs will attempt to oust Liz Truss this week, making her the shortest-serving Prime Minister in history, despite Downing Street warning that it could trigger a general election. There are assertions that Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt could be put into No 10 and No 11 as part of a ‘coronation’ by MPs. Others believe Jeremy Hunt may use his position to force himself into Liz Truss’s job.
But it’s now got to be said that the Conservatives are the party that broke Great Britain, although we shouldn’t overlook the foolish nature of those that voted for them, but then the global plan is bigger than we give it credit for. These people could quite easily starve us to extinction if they could get away with it.
I can’t think of a single success story under the Conservatives in the last twelve years, and everything feels like it’s gone backwards, and can anyone honestly say that they’re better off financially, or that our services have improved? And before anyone says they handled COVID well, perhaps we should stop and engage our brains first. Think of all those deaths, care homes and abuse of our money et cetera. No, it’s all been a total catastrophe.
Nobody said things would be easy, but Brexit has been even more costly than anyone could have predicted. The only thing that came out of the Brexit vote was those blue passports, and the deregulation of EU red tape, which meant that Tories voted to allow companies to pour raw sewage into our waters and the opportunity to get rid of workers’ rights and human rights. All you have to do is look at the state of Britain since 2016.
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