Truss in peril: UK finance minister acts to calm markets as clamour grows for PM to quit
Britain's new finance minister will announce fresh tax and spending measures on Monday morning — two weeks earlier than scheduled — in a bid to quell turbulent markets, the government says.
It comes amid reports of a growing revolt among ruling Conservative MPs against Liz Truss' premiership, following the fiasco surrounding her budget plans.
The prime minister's position is increasingly in doubt as the central planks of her economic programme are ditched and her authority over her government and backbenchers is shot to pieces.
Jeremy Hunt, who was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday, is due to make a statement at 11 am local time (12.00 CEST), before appearing in the House of Commons in the afternoon.
The former health and foreign secretary has been racing to overhaul the government's financial plans since he replaced Kwasi Kwarteng who was sacked on Friday. Kwarteng's unfunded tax cuts announced in his "mini-budget" on September 23 sent the pound tumbling, borrowing costs soaring, and sparked a collapse in support for the ruling party.
On Sunday, Hunt and Truss held a crisis meeting at her country residence to prepare a new budget plan. Defending the government's new direction, he acknowledged his predecessor's mistakes and warned of "difficult decisions" to come.
Later, he met with the Governor of the Bank of England" and the head of the Debt Management Office on Sunday evening to "update them on these plans", the government statement said.
A handful of Tory MPs have publicly called on Liz Truss to step down. "Enough is enough," one of them, Jamie Wallace, wrote on Twitter. "I have written to the Prime Minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country."
Crispin Blunt, an MP
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