Hunt ditches ‘almost all’ of Truss’ tax cuts as chancellor bins mini-Budget October 17, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has binned “almost all” of Liz Truss’ mini-Budget, while also announcing that the UK’s energy bills freeze will only be universal until April. The new chancellor confirmed more of Truss’ tax cuts have now been overturned – including the planned cut to the basic rate of Income Tax – in a bid to [...]
Hunt tries to steady the ship as Tory MPs plot Truss’ downfall October 17, 2022 Jeremy Hunt yesterday urged Tory MPs to get behind Liz Truss to save her premiership as he warned of impending spending cuts and tax rises. The new chancellor said Truss had “listened” and “changed” since last month’s catastrophic mini-budget, while warning of the “difficult decisions” he would make to restore market confidence in the government. [...]
Treasury to shut down £100m Covid fraud recovery squad in March October 16, 2022 The Treasury has decided to close down its unit charged with recovering money stolen through Covid fraud, after clawing back hundreds of millions less than expected. The £100m Taxpayer Protection Taskforce was set up by former chancellor Rishi Sunak to recover some of the estimated £5.8bn lost to fraud through three Covid support schemes. The [...]
Hunt says Truss has ‘changed’ as he warns of spending cuts and tax rises October 16, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has claimed Liz Truss has “changed” after the bruising last month as he warns of coming spending cuts and tax rises. The new chancellor said “spending is not going to increase by as much as people hoped” and that “taxes are not going to go down as quickly as people thought and some [...]
Liz Truss appoints Jeremy Hunt as chancellor after Kwarteng sacking October 14, 2022 Jeremy Hunt has been appointed as the new chancellor after prime minister Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng today following weeks of market turmoil triggered by last month’s mini budget. Hunt is the fourth chancellor this year. According to bookmaker Betfair, Truss is now odds on to step down as prime minister. Kwarteng wrote to Liz [...]
Trade minister says Truss ‘deserves the confidence of the country’, as PM announces press conference October 14, 2022 Newly-appointed trade minister Greg Hands has come out fighting for prime minister Liz Truss, saying she “deserves the confidence of the country”, as Liz Truss announces a press conference today at 2pm. The cabinet official defended the embattled resident of Number 10 who is facing the prospect of an embarrassing U-turn on corporation tax. It [...]
Explainer-in-brief: Liz Truss’ u-turns will make us all dizzy October 14, 2022 Boris Johnson was often ridiculed for his frequent u-turns on policies, but his successor has been happy to take up the mantle. After the fierce backlash following the not-so-mini-budget, the government decided to scrap plans to ditch the 45p tax rate at the beginning of October. The Chancellor then said he was bringing forward to [...]
Kwarteng returns from US early for crisis talks with Truss amid speculation of U-turn and a Tory coup October 14, 2022 Kwasi Kwarteng is to cut short his visit to the United States, to hold crunch talks with the Prime Minister before an expected mini-budget U-turn. The embattled finance chief left the International Monetary Fund gathering and headed home overnight, following a fiery briefing with journalists. This comes as The Times reported that a group of [...]
Truss has picked the wrong fight: the problem is inflation, not lack of growth October 13, 2022 In her speech to what was left of Tory party conference, Liz Truss promised that her priority was “growth, growth, growth”. The events of the past week have underlined why that is the wrong priority, at the wrong time, by the wrong prime minister. Much has been made about the prime minister’s ideological convictions but [...]
Suppliers fear revenue cap could deter investment and risk supply security October 12, 2022 The Government's decision to cap revenues from renewables generators risks deterring investment into the UK warned energy energy firms.