Liz Truss

In a move to calm financial markets and her own Conservative Party, Prime Minister Liz Truss canceled planned tax cuts for corporations and replaced Kwasi ...

That [prompted the Bank of England](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125859448/the-british-economy-is-in-freefall-with-a-rare-intervention-by-the-bank-of-engla) to step in to prevent a crisis. As confidence and anticipation have grown for further changes, the pound inched up in value on Thursday and bond markets stabilized some. [record low](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/26/1125080014/british-pound-record-low-dollar) against the dollar. "When you asked me to serve as your Chancellor, I did so in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices," Kwarteng said in his departure letter. He and Truss held urgent talks in Downing Street shortly after his return to London. Then hours later, she announced a U-turn on their economic package, attempting to calm financial markets and reinforce her shaky leadership position little more than a month after taking office.

Sterling fell, FTSE 100 lost its gains and bond yields rose after PM's press conference failed to announce new direction.

It suggests there was a drop in demand for emergency cash from certain pension funds that last month were at risk of collapse. The writing was on the wall when markets surged in anticipatory delight on the news that another post-budget U-turn was imminent and moves on corporation tax have gone a long way to bolstering sentiment today. Government bonds rallied before she spoke, pushing yields – the interest rate in relation to the price of the bond – sharply lower. We’re awaiting answers and in some ways I’m surprised the markets haven’t reacted more negatively.” Sterling fell 1.3% to $1.1188 on a rollercoaster day for the currency. However, the prime minister’s appearance erased almost all of its advance in afternoon trading, with the blue chip index up just 8 points at 6,858 on the day.

The sharp policy U-turn by Liz Truss, Britain's prime minister, reveals the perils of taking the wrong path in the fight against scalding inflation.

“There were sclerotic high taxes and an overregulated economy, but not anymore.” Today, taxes in Britain are lower, and the economy is less regulated than the average member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of 38 major economies. The richest countries that make up the Group of 7 are essentially part of the same “monetary and fiscal convoy,” said Will Hutton, president of the Academy of Social Sciences. “Public investment in research and skills are more important.” The result was a reduction in government revenue and a ballooning of Britain’s debt. By championing a Thatcher-era blend of steep tax cuts and deregulation, he said, the Truss government strayed too far from the rest of the flotilla and the economic mainstream. “Central banks printed every single dollar, euro and pound that governments spent” to support households and businesses because of the Covid crisis, Mr. “The situation in 1979 was very different,” Ms. Truss, instead of coming up with a way to pay for energy assistance, pushed to eliminate a corporate tax increase and cut income taxes for the wealthiest segment of the population. This year, the Fed has been swiftly raising interest rates in a bid to slow growth. Tension between the fiscal spending policies proposed by a government and the monetary policies controlled by central banks is not unusual. “Measures to help households hit hard by energy increases, by themselves, would not have created that much of a stir,” he said. Truss fired her top finance official, Kwasi Kwarteng, for creating precisely the package of unfunded tax cuts, billion-dollar spending programs and deregulation that she had asked for.

Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked her Treasury chief and reversed course on a major part of her tax-cutting economic plan early this mornin.

The housing market is likely to suffer a hammer blow from the jump in mortgage rates and the war in Ukraine rumbles on,” he said. The weeks of financial turmoil has helped the opposition Labour Party take a commanding lead in opinion polls. Despite backtracking on a major part of her programme, Truss clung to the idea that her policies were what the country needs to spur economic growth. And the BBC reported that a group of senior Conservative lawmakers are planning to call for Truss’ resignation next week. “I don’t think it communicated the kind of confidence the country needs right now.” But the market response was muted and the political reaction to what many saw as panicked moves left Truss’ credibility in tatters after only six weeks in office.

Ben Riley-Smith, political editor, the Daily Telegraph: Can you explain to the public why you think you should remain as prime minister, given you have dumped a ...

But we recognise because of current market issues we have to deliver the mission in a different way … Liz Truss: I’m determined to deliver on what I set out when I campaigned to be party leader. To see us through the storm we face …

'It feels like the end. I think she'll be gone next week,' says veteran Tory MP.

A group of Tory MPs have settled on the idea of a joint ticket of Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak to take over from Truss. “Colleagues who do this sort of thing ought to start to think about the impression that they give to their own associations. “Rishi and Penny got over two-thirds of the parliamentary party between them on the final MPs ballot,” one Tory rebel organizer said. A Tory MP who backs Truss said “a lot of people are getting really rather overexcited.” Her decision to stick to that line and refusal to admit fault at a meeting Wednesday with the organizing group for backbench Tory MPs, the 1922 committee, infuriated MPs. She says something to the effect of ‘we’re not populists, we need to do what’s right.’ She just doesn’t accept that she needs people to buy into her plans.” Thérèse Coffey, the deputy prime minister and Truss’ closest ally, held a call with a supportive group of Tory MPs in an attempt to calm the waters at 2:15 p.m. “They want to know that the government understands its parliamentary party and the two are aligned rather than constantly in battle,” one former Cabinet minister said. and a second call with to which all Tory MPs were invited later in the afternoon. One MP messaged colleagues urging them to “show backbone” and claimed the maelstrom had been an invention of the press. A colleague responded to say they were “living in a fantasy world.” Craig Mackinlay, a Tory backbencher, messaged colleagues saying of Kwarteng’s departure: “This is a double U-turn with the handbrake on.

Liz Truss reverses her plan to scrap a business tax rise but vows to deliver economic growth.

Ms Truss's statement has intensified speculation about her future, with some Tory MPs sharing their thoughts with the BBC." "I want to be honest, this is difficult," Ms Truss said. Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi tweeted: "It's time to get Britain moving. - In a letter to the PM, Mr Kwarteng said Ms Truss's economic vision was "right" for the country [Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a general election](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-scotland-63256541), saying Ms Truss is "unfit to hold the office of prime minister" Ms Truss said her new chancellor shared her vision for the country and would deliver a statement on her economic plan at the end of this month.

Asked by reporters on the Tory leadership campaign trail when she had changed her mind, Truss responded with a smile: “Almost immediately after I'd made that ...

In the government’s mini-budget, Kwarteng, the then chancellor, had said corporation tax would be frozen at 19%, scrapping a rise to 25% planned by his predecessor. She added: “The way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.” As a member of David Cameron’s government, Truss campaigned for remain during the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. She faced opposition from the UK steel industry, which predicted her proposals would cost thousands of jobs. A veteran mandarin was appointed as Treasury’s top civil servant on Monday after Truss backtracked on her plans to bring in an “outsider” as part of attempts to “shake up” the ministry. [ignored her own climate advisers](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/09/anger-as-truss-ignores-her-climate-advisers-call-for-energy-saving-drive#:~:text=Liz%20Truss%20has%20ignored%20the,her%20resistance%20to%20the%20plan.) in opposing an [energy-saving campaign](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/07/climate-minister-britons-not-be-told-use-less-energy-winter-nanny-state) this winter, it emerged at the weekend, as one of her ministers said a public information scheme to help people reduce energy bills was pulled on the grounds of cost.

A major reshuffle and the scrapping of a key tax-cutting pledge by U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss on Friday wasn't enough to placate markets.

Corporation tax was set to increase from 19% to 25% under Truss' predecessor, Boris Johnson, but that was scrapped by Truss during the mini-budget on Sept. We do not expect financial concerns to abate as a result of today's action," Citi Bank said. The tax will now increase as originally planned. "We would not be surprised if Conservative MPs pressure Truss to resign in coming days. [A major reshuffle and the scrapping of a key tax-cutting pledge by U.K. The announcements Friday may have come too late, suggested Ben Laidler from investment company eToro. U.K. "The implication is PM Truss now faces a squeeze between her Parliamentary party on the one hand and markets on the other. - U.K. - But they gave back gains after the conference, with the 30-year yield returning to around 4.773% by around 5 p.m. - The tax will now increase as originally planned. - Corporation tax was set to increase from 19% to 25% under Truss' predecessor, Boris Johnson, but that was scrapped by Truss on Friday.

The prime minister is facing political ruin after the collapse of her economic agenda, but Conservative MPs do not have an obvious successor to rally ...

The Treasury market is increasingly risky. Putin blew his chance at an off-ramp. High interest rates are at least helping banks. relates to Liz Truss Is a ...

[Sign up here](https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/opinion-today). This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a googly-eyed lettuce of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. If you want to know how things are going for Liz Truss today, the Daily Star tabloid has set up a live

British PM Liz Truss sacks chancellor, scraps parts of economic package in desperate bid for political survival.

[she appointed Jeremy Hunt to replace Kwarteng](/news/2022/10/14/uk-truss-sacks-kwarteng-announces-mini-budget-u-turn) as chancellor and reversed the plan to cut corporation tax, scrapping a key part of the economic plan that had sparked market turmoil. He replaced Nadhim Zahawi, who got the job in July. [Truss defended her economic plan](/news/2022/9/29/pm-liz-truss-defends-uncosted-uk-tax-cuts-despite-market-turmoil) and shrugged off [the negative reaction](/economy/2022/9/28/uk-stocks-sterling-slip-as-boe-intervenes-after-imf-slams-budget) from financial markets, saying she is willing to make “difficult decisions” to get the economy growing. [Bank of England (BoE) stepped in](/economy/2022/9/28/uk-stocks-sterling-slip-as-boe-intervenes-after-imf-slams-budget) to shore up market confidence in the UK after the IMF [criticised the UK’s budget](/economy/2022/9/27/57), arguing it “will likely increase inequality” and worsen inflation. [unveiled a new mini-budget in the parliament](/news/2022/9/23/uk-mini-budget-shakes-the-stock-market-benefits-the-wealthy), intending to cut household taxes and energy bills while driving economic growth. [dump the pound](/economy/2022/9/26/boe-says-monitoring-markets-very-closely-after-pound-plunges) and government bonds.

Many MPs are unhappy with the prime minister after she fired her chancellor and announced a second U-turn.

He said: "The only unity we'd end up with is the unity of the grave. The question is do we jump in now or step back." The idea cropping up most is a joint ticket with former chancellor Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. It also requires discipline - something that has been in short supply in Conservative ranks since the turbulent days of Theresa May's premiership. One former backer told the BBC Ms Truss had "appointed her successor," by bringing in Jeremy Hunt as chancellor. Another MP called Ms Truss's news conference "a mega-disaster". On Friday, Ms Truss sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and reversed a key policy to scrap the planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%. Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi tweeted: "It's time to get Britain moving. In a tweet, Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey - a close ally of Ms Truss - said the prime minister was "right to act now to ensure our country's economic stability". - In a letter to the PM, Mr Kwarteng said Ms Truss's economic vision was "right" for the country [Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for a general election](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-scotland-63256541), saying Ms Truss is "unfit to hold the office of prime minister" The U-turn on corporation tax is "going to be damaging to the prospects for growth" and is "totally inconsistent" with what she said during the campaign, Sir Christopher said.

Even by British traditions of political failure, this prime minister's brief tenure has been a spectacular disaster.

This has not happened before and would surely act like a knife to the body politic, leaving a permanent scar on the country’s reputation. I’d lived through the turmoil of Afghanistan and Iraq, the global financial crisis and Brexit. Then she brought [forward the date](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63206989) when the government would reveal how it was going to pay for all its tax cuts, which created the obvious concern that a fresh round of austerity was on its way. assistance, and then again in the late ’70s when it was bailed out by the IMF. What’s happening now is entirely new: the very real prospect that the markets will force a change of prime minister before an election. When the Queen died, it fell to Truss to speak for the nation. It was in this position after the war when it needed U.S. This, in turn, led ordinary banks to start hiking their mortgage rates in expectation of what was coming, just as Sunak had warned, which then sent the property-owning middle classes into a tailspin as they rushed to lock in new rates before the numbers spiked even further. For the first time in my adult life, there is a genuine sense of decay in Britain—a realization that something has been lost that will be difficult to recover, something more profound than pounds and pence, political personalities, or even prime ministers. In a single act of folly, Truss had destroyed her premiership and her party’s reputation while resurrecting Labour’s, which had only just been recovering from its own bout of insanity under Jeremy Corbyn. [abandoning](https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-63221738) the central tax-cutting purpose of her premiership and sacking her closest political ally, who had implemented this vision. has been gripped by a crisis of crushing stupidity, one that has gone beyond all the turmoil of Brexit, Boris, even the great bank bailouts of 2007, and touched that most precious of things: core national credibility.

Turmoil in Tory party takes centre stage after unconvincing moves by an unrepentant Truss to fix her policy crisis.

“In the United States, President Biden, while waging his own political battles over gas prices and inflation, has not proposed anything like the kind of policies that Ms Truss’s government attempted, nor have any other leaders in Europe.” The Mail laments the Tory chaos and asks in its headline “how much more can she (and the rest of us) take?”. The Express evokes Thatcher with its headline: “Vultures circling, but Truss is not for quitting”. It says Jeremy Hunt is the fourth chancellor in 101 days, and that there is talk of him as a replacement PM if Truss goes. Political commentator Robert Shrimsley asks pointedly “what is the point of Liz Truss now” given the policy U-turns, adding that her MPs no longer trust her. It notes Truss’s press conference consisted of “eight minutes, four questions and no apology”.

A forlorn Liz Truss tops the Financial Times, snapped on Friday at a press conference after the PM was forced to sack her then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

[A senior Tory who backed Ms Truss for the leadership tells the Financial Times that she will be gone within a fortnight](https://www.ft.com/content/63ac7dab-d8e4-412c-a910-c0013fdf7f3d). [The Independent online also reports that Tory MPs believe Ms Truss could be removed within "days or weeks"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-kwarteng-hunt-uturn-b2203110.html). It argues that although they fumbled the execution disastrously, Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng were right in their central analysis - and it's no time for Tory MPs to go wobbly. The paper has then gone one step further and set up a live stream online - so the public can monitor which lasts longer: a 60p Tesco lettuce or Ms Truss' time in office. [The Daily Mail](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html) says the prime minister's first 38 days in office have proved some of the most shambolic in British political history - after what it describes as "another day of barely believable Tory chaos". The Times quotes a source who says Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, believes that "the wagons are circling" for the PM.

Five contenders who could succeed Truss as the Conservative party's fifth leader since the Brexit vote in 2016.

Sunak would have the post-Truss advantage of being viewed as a safe pair of fiscal hands. Gove would, however, be something of an outsider for the job. As it turned out, the financial markets – and now many voters – seem to think he was correct. Largely untarnished by the Astonishing as it may sound to someone who has not paid attention to politics since about 2016, after little more than a month in office, a consensus is building that Liz Truss could be finished as prime minister. [been soundly rejected](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/05/liz-truss-wins-tory-leadership-race-to-become-britains-next-pm) by Conservative members, but he was the top choice of the party’s MPs, and he has spent the last month, in effect, being able to silently show he was right.

A British newspaper today pitted Liz Truss in a race against a lettuce, asking readers if they thought the under-fire prime minister would lose her job ...

Another MP called Truss's news conference "a mega-disaster". The stunt echoed a comment at the other end of Britain's journalistic spectrum. Truss insisted she would stay on as prime minister to see through her "mission" to get the economy growing. Conservative MP for Coalville, Andrew Bridgen, said he thinks "there'll be a challenge to Truss in the next few weeks". In a column published this week titled "The Iceberg Lady", the Economist magazine described Truss as having "the shelf-life of a lettuce". Another Tory MP said the party was in a "state of despair" after the PM's Downing Street news conference.

Her new chancellor is looking to reassure investors and reset public finances but some painful choices lie ahead.

One was: "We will do whatever is necessary to ensure debt is falling as a share of the economy in the medium term". With her authority in tatters, she is a prisoner of her cabinet, if they combine to stand up to her. She is a prisoner of her parliamentary party, in which MPs are reported to be deeply dismayed and unimpressed. They also want to see an economy that's geared for growth, and Liz Truss is not the only person who thinks that the UK needs to boost its growth rate. Thursday's expectations of a U-turn rallied bond prices and the pound. Those others are more likely to identify low productivity as the vital and malfunctioning cog in the British economic machine. Corporate investors are attracted to countries with a strong and reasonably predictable rule of law. Bond investors primary concern is with levels of borrowing, but do they care much about the balance of tax and spending? But their job is to safeguard money and earn from it, so they also make a judgement about how much that borrowing profile is likely to change with a new government. For those who invest in company shares rather than bonds, there is a recognition that firms do well in a country with strong public services. You might well find that financiers are more likely to be both conservative about public finance and Conservative with their votes. The experience of Greece, during the Eurozone crisis, showed how it can happen - a democratic mandate blown off course because the markets don't think the government can sustain its borrowing.

Chancellor says 'difficult decisions' ahead with some departments needing to find savings and some taxes set to rise.

Clung on as they made the pound sink, clung on as they took our pensions to the brink of collapse, clung on as they pushed the mortgages and bills of the British people through the roof. We need to be prepared, disciplined, relentlessly focused on the future, spend each day working to earn the trust of the British people, provide the leadership this country so desperately needs and walk towards a better future. British power to the British people. That’s why we struggle for growth – we lock too many communities out of the wealth we create, create too many jobs that are low paid and insecure. A publicly owned company that takes advantage of the opportunities in clean British power and turns them into good, secure, high-paid British jobs. And driving us forward will be a goal that puts us ahead of any major economy in the world: 100% clean power by 2030. All of the pain our country faces now is down to them. In Batley and Spen, where we beat back the forces of division with Kim Leadbeater. We must be the party of sound money. “No doubt we will hear plenty of laughable excuses in the coming days. For some, the whole project was supposed to be a celebration of Britain’s departure from the EU. This region is also important to this Labour party and our shared journey, from the pain of defeat four times, to a moment where the prospect of serving our country again no longer looks impossible.

In a move to calm financial markets and her own Conservative Party, Prime Minister Liz Truss canceled planned tax cuts for corporations and replaced Kwasi ...

And plenty of warning was given by many of us about what would happen if we had unfunded tax cuts and whether it would be financially and politically sustainable." That [prompted the Bank of England](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/29/1125859448/the-british-economy-is-in-freefall-with-a-rare-intervention-by-the-bank-of-engla) to step in to prevent a crisis. As confidence and anticipation have grown for further changes, the pound inched up in value on Thursday and bond markets stabilized some. [record low](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/26/1125080014/british-pound-record-low-dollar) against the dollar. "When you asked me to serve as your Chancellor, I did so in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices," Kwarteng said in his departure letter. Then hours later, she announced a U-turn on their economic package, attempting to calm financial markets and reinforce her shaky leadership position little more than a month after taking office.

LONDON — What do British Prime Minister Liz Truss's political tenure and a wilting head of lettuce have in common, you might ask?

[echoed](https://twitter.com/LibDems/status/1580897121435144192) a similar sentiment: “Enough is enough. before frantically flying back to the U.K.), with a former foreign minister Jeremy Hunt, who pledged Saturday to restore economic credibility. Hunt lost the Conservative Party leadership race to Johnson in 2019. “We need a change in government.” “Changing the Chancellor doesn’t undo the damage made in Downing Street. [predicting ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/06/liz-truss-troubled-britain-leader/?itid=lk_inline_manual_36)a possible winter of discontent on the horizon. [plunging the pound](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/27/british-pound-drop-dollar-us-impact/?itid=lk_inline_manual_31) and forcing the [Bank of England to take unprecedented interventions](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/28/boe-uk-pound-intervention/?itid=lk_inline_manual_31) to quell the financial revolt. It started with Boris Johnson failing our country, and now Liz Truss has broken our economy. [decried ](https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1581016433420832769)“A day of chaos,” while the Mirror tabloid [simply ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-63265862)said “Time’s up.” [dubbed ](https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/10/11/liz-truss-has-made-britain-a-riskier-bet-for-bond-investors)Truss “The Iceberg Lady,” bluntly predicting her career has “the shelf-life of a lettuce.” [accused ](https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/liz-truss-lettuce-last-longer-28235047)Truss of being a “lame duck PM” following a “shambolic day,” on Friday as she [fired her finance minister](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/14/uk-truss-kwarteng-budget-tory/?itid=lk_inline_manual_13), Kwasi Kwarteng, after just 38 days in office and u-turned on tax policies, in a bid to steady the wobbling economy. [quipped](https://twitter.com/lockdownurlife/status/1580904686772637696): “In the US we measure such things in Scaramuccis,” referring to Anthony Scaramucci — the [short-serving](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/07/31/anthony-scaramucci-removed-as-white-house-communications-director/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20) White House communications director, who lasted less than a week in the Trump administration.

The new chancellor has junked the prime minister's economic strategy in 24 hours, writes Laura Kuenssberg.

One former minister said there had been a "total seepage of power and authority" and she is on her way out in either weeks or months. Believe the polls and Ms Truss' start in office has been an epic disaster from which it is hard to see a return. Boris Johnson and Theresa May survived far, far longer than many of their colleagues had hoped. But that arithmetic won't be pretty - public spending cuts are on the way and taxes could rise too. And yet, very often, it does. But has she killed off what political authority she had left and handed it to someone else?

The situation for the UK prime minister is dire, but is it hopeless? Having Jeremy Hunt in No. 11 Downing Street could still save her.

Although he is a free-marketeer by conviction, a big plus point for Hunt is that he gets the importance of empathy. Contrast that with Truss’s failure to acknowledge the cost to homeowners of the soaring mortgage bills that followed the mini-budget. Previously, he was editor of the Sunday Times of London and its chief political commentator. The government has a maximum of two years before its allotted time is up, but the prime minister may struggle to survive her MPs’ displeasure until next month. The prime minister is now surrendering the major planks of her libertarian program. Although another leadership putsch would install the fifth Tory prime minister in six years, fear of electoral oblivion is driving the parliamentary party to contemplate desperate measures. Has the prime minister too become a figurehead? The markets had already baked in surrender. Unlike Wilson and Major, who had earlier triumphed at the polls, this prime minister has no electoral mandate for her libertarian prospectus. Harold Wilson, the UK’s most economically literate prime minister since World War II, for instance, wasted enormous political capital defending the value of the pound. On Friday, the prime minister duly performed her screeching U-turn but refused to resign. The situation is dire, but is it hopeless?

Britain's Liz Truss has sacrificed her finance minister and closest political ally just weeks into her premiership in order to save her own skin, ...

Under party rules, Truss is protected from a leadership challenge for the first year of her premiership. All of which means that for now, Truss and her party are stuck. Some Conservative MPs think that Hunt, who served as health secretary, foreign secretary and culture, media and sport secretary under previous governments, will bring unity to a party that is still recovering from the summer’s bruising leadership contest. Truss swiftly replaced Kwarteng with Jeremy Hunt, a former cabinet minister of multiple briefs who has stood for the leadership twice. Kwarteng and Truss were in lockstep in their vision for Britain; removing him from office is a tacit acceptance that her economic plan has failed. Kwarteng being gone, however, does not mean that Truss is out of the woods.

Britain's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday (local time) some taxes would go up and tough spending decisions were needed, saying Prime ...

New chancellor vows to be 'completely honest with country' amid rumours PM has only weeks left in role.

But we are talking about very difficult decisions in budgets where there is already a great deal of pressure.” Hunt, twice a Tory leadership contender and a former foreign secretary, said: “We will have some very difficult decisions ahead. Some taxes will go up … It was a mistake, when we’re going to be asking for difficult decisions across the board on tax and spending, to cut the rate of tax paid by the very wealthiest. “It was a mistake to fly blind and to do these forecasts without giving people the confidence of the Office for [replacing Kwasi Kwarteng](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/14/jeremy-hunt-chancellor-surprising-return) on Friday, the former health secretary signalled he would have a “clean slate” when it came to the budget, and vowed to be “completely honest with the country” amid rumours that Truss has only weeks left as prime minister.

As new chancellor Jeremy Hunt rips up prime minister's economic plans, Conservatives plot route to replace her.

I think that she would probably be best advised to sit down with Sir Graham Brady and discuss how we can have a replacement in a day or two.” However, he warned that “inflationary pressure” would probably need a “stronger response” in terms of increasing interest rates. Hunt will be allowed to reexamine the case for a windfall tax on energy companies, and on Saturday night it emerged that he plans to delay the penny cut in income tax that was another key part of Truss’s package. “It is a case now of whether she takes part in the process and goes to some extent on her own terms, or whether she tries to resist and is forced out.” In a repudiation of the economic plans that won Truss the Tory leadership, he said that some taxes would rise while public spending would be held down. “When you’ve got both Philip Hammond and Nadine Dorries saying that if we change leader again there’s got to be a general election, that’s not light scaremongering. A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister’s future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now “in office but not in control”. Another involved in canvassing MPs said that, just as with the removal of Boris Johnson, the process of agreeing to move against Truss remained difficult. A source familiar with the conversations said: “They are just going to have to sit down and work things out. “She is in the departure lounge now and she knows that,” said a former minister. It now becomes a rescue mission for the Conservative party and the economy. On Saturday night, he said Truss’s mini-budget “went too far, too fast”.

The Prime Minister is facing political ruin after the collapse of her economic agenda, but Conservative MPs do not have an obvious successor to rally around ...

Truss conceded on Wednesday to her MPs that she had not "laid the groundwork" for her plan sufficiently, but many Tory MPs put the debacle down to an arrogance based on the ideological certainty of a group of rightwingers, fuelled by rightwing think-tanks like the Institute of Economic Affairs. It's only a question now of when the party gets rid of her." Truss will hope that her MPs recoil from the prospect of another Tory leadership contest. Instead a YouGov survey this month found that just 14 per cent of the public had a positive impression of Truss compared with 73 per cent who saw her in an unfavourable light. Truss will hope the political situation will also stabilise and some Tory MPs believe that she might stagger on into the new year. Truss needed to provide some reassurance to markets before Monday that the situation is under control. Truss's U-turn on corporation tax — the increase is expected to raise £18bn — might buy her some time, especially if it reassures the markets that she is finally listening. "They said that unless the government reversed the tax cuts, there would be a very bad market reaction," said one person briefed on the discussions. In one searing moment, Truss was accused by Tory MP Robert Halfon of having "trashed" a decade of work by successive Conservative leaders to win over working-class voters. Some in the Treasury believe the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt may have to raise other taxes to make the sums add up when he lays out the new government economic plan on October 31. "It seems like the anti-growth coalition is everyone except the right wing of the Conservative party," says one shell-shocked Tory MP. A massive support package for energy bills — initially costing £60bn — will survive, but Truss did not go into politics to offer what she once called "handouts" to people.

US president makes unusual intervention, saying he is worried by 'lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries'

Hunt is expected to announce that plans to reduce the basic rate of income tax next April will be pushed back by a year. I’m concerned about the rest of the world. “I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,” Biden said.

New chancellor says taxes must rise after prime minister Liz Truss failed to reassure markets.