JEREMY Hunt has been appointed as Liz Truss’s second Chancellor in less than six weeks in the job.
Liz Truss attempted to shift the blame for the economic turmoil caused by her Government’s mini-budget three weeks ago by sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor.
Despite insisting yesterday that Ms Truss and him were in “lock-step” over the mini-budget and that he was “going nowhere”, Mr Kwarteng cut his United States visit short for crisis talks with the Prime Minister.
After meeting with the Prime Minister at Downing Street, Mr Kwarteng was fired by Ms Truss.
The Prime Minister has found an immediate replacement – hiring former UK health secretary and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt as the new Chancellor.
A more centrist figure, Mr Hunt is unlikely to share Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss’s ideological free market commitment to tax cuts.
Mr Kwarteng’s dismissal follows weeks of turmoil after his £43 billion package of unfunded tax cuts spooked the financial markets.
His departure may give Ms Truss some brief breathing space as she seeks to shore up her battered authority – but it will also raise fresh questions about her chances of survival.
The Prime Minister is closely linked to Mr Kwarteng’s tax-cutting agenda having strongly defended his plan to get the economy going again.
The commitments to reverse a hike in national insurance rates and ditch a planned rise in corporation tax, without explaining how they would be paid for, were the key planks of her leadership election campaign.
But after the financial markets took fright – with the pound plummeting against the dollar and the cost of government borrowing soaring – the Conservatives have seen their opinion poll ratings tank.
For Labour, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the whole Government had to go.
“Changing the chancellor doesn’t undo the damage that’s already been done,” she said.
“It was a crisis made in Downing Street. Liz Truss and the Conservatives crashed the economy, causing mortgages to skyrocket, and has undermined Britain’s standing on the world stage.
“We don’t just need a change in chancellor, we need a change in Government.”
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