“Very difficult” decisions may have to be made in the future, says British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer, warned today that “very difficult” decisions may need to be made in the future, hinting that a return to austerity was not out of the question after abandoning the economic plan announced by his predecessor in government of Liz Truss, Quazi Kwarteng.

After successive, humiliating backtracking on her pre-election promises, the prime minister’s days seem numbered.

Hunt took over the finance ministry on Friday after Kwarteng’s “development plan” caused a storm in the markets. Today he presented the “general lines” of the medium-term budget which will be officially announced in its entirety on October 31. He said “very tough” decisions may have to be made in terms of cuts in government spending and tax increases – a complete repudiation of Tras’s original plan. But he assured that the government’s priority is “to support the vulnerable”.

Tras was absent from parliament

Fueling speculation about her political future, Liz Truss sent Parliamentary Affairs Minister Penny Mordant to answer questions from the opposition Labor party. Shortly afterwards, after arriving at Westminster for Jeremy Hunt’s speech, it emerged that her absence was due to a meeting she had with Graham Brady, the head of the Conservative Party’s powerful ‘1922 Committee’. According to the Guardian newspaper, it was a planned meeting unrelated to the current crisis. However, this did not stop MP Stella Creasy from accusing Truss of “cowardly hiding under her desk”.

The prime minister “simply cannot stay in her place”, said Angela Eagle, also a Labor MP.

During Hunt’s speech in the House of Commons and the attacks launched against him by Labor MPs, Truss remained silent and expressionless.

Having taken office just 40 days ago, she is in danger of becoming the shortest-lived prime minister in UK history.

“This crisis was created by the Conservatives in Downing Street, but ordinary people are paying for it,” said Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow finance minister. He also questioned why the government was not taxing energy producers to fund fiscal support, saying he feared the country would experience “the sequel to austerity” after the deep cuts of the 2010s.

Hunt told the House that he did not disagree with the principle of a special tax on windfall profits and that he “doesn’t rule anything out”, but stressed that the energy industry is “cyclical” and “we have to be very careful that we don’t tax companies in a way that drives away investors. That’s why we said that nothing is out of the question.

The minister also announced the formation of a new Economic Advisory Committee, which will provide him with “independent expert opinions” in his bid to pull the economy out of a crisis of confidence among investors. The members of this Commission, which will have no power over policy-making or decision-making, will be chosen (or removed) by Hunt himself.

RES-EMP

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