Jeremy Hunt: New chancellor insists Truss is 'in charge' as he prepares to shred her economic plan

Political Correspondent Libby Wiener reports on how MPs are plotting to remove PM Liz Truss

New chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted the prime minister is "in charge", despite plots by Tory MPs to oust her and Mr Hunt's own plan to reverse some of her key economic pledges.

The chancellor, brought in to replace the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng and to restore credibility to Downing Street, spent Saturday effectively trashing the mini-budget and the set of policies that brought Ms Truss to power.

On Sunday, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg asked Mr Hunt if Liz Truss was still in charge of the nation, given that her new chancellor had "ditched" her plans.

“The prime minister’s in charge,” Mr Hunt insisted.

As tax rises and spending cuts loom, Mr Hunt once again warned of “difficult decisions” to come. He also insisted he supports the PM's push for economic growth and that the pair are a “team”.

As Mr Hunt begins his job of putting together a fresh budget for October 31, one possible plan, as reported in the Sunday Times, would be to delay his predecessor’s aim of reducing the basic rate of income tax by a year as part of a wider package designed to calm the financial markets.

Ms Truss met Mr Hunt at Chequers on Sunday, as rumours continue to swirl of plots to oust the prime minister.

Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, did little to quash those rumours during an appearance on Sky News, when he declined to deny that MPs are considering installing a new leader.

“Of course, colleagues are unhappy with what is going on. We’re all talking to see what can be done about it.” he said.

“I worry that, over the past few weeks, the government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free market experiments," he said.

It's a question of when, not if, PM Liz Truss goes, as Political Correspondent Libby Wiener explains

Another MP, Crispin Blunt, told Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show that the “game is up” for her. “It's now a question as to how the succession is managed,” he said.

Meanwhile, treasury minister Andrew Griffith, speaking on Times Radio, insisted that the prime minister has the “confidence of the government”.

US president Joe Biden also appeared to join in the criticism of Ms Truss’s plan, telling reporters: “I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake” and calling the outcome “predictable”.

Joe Biden bites into an ice cream after giving his take on Liz Truss' economic policy

Earlier, governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey said he warned Mr Hunt, after he was appointed as chancellor, that interest rates may have to be raised higher than initially expected to tackle inflation.

Speaking from Washington, he said the pair had a “meeting of minds” on the issue of “fiscal sustainability”. He also noted that the Office of Budget Responsibility is now “very much back in the picture”.

On Saturday, Ms Truss tried to win over her own party and voters to the new Downing Street regime. In a piece in The Sun, she said: “We cannot pave the way to a low-tax, high-growth economy without maintaining the confidence of the markets in our commitment to sound money”.

Elsewhere, there was speculation that including the Ministry of Defence in any round of spending cuts could spark a clash with Mr Wallace.

A defence source said he will hold Ms Truss to the pledges made.

Ms Truss promised to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The prime minister nonetheless still has her defenders within the party.

Former culture minister Nadine Dorries, a loyal follower of Boris Johnson, wrote in the Daily Express: “The sad truth is that those scheming to eject the prime minister from Downing Street are the same plotters who conspired to get rid of Boris. They will not rest until they have anointed their own chosen leader in power.”

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