The British PM Liz Truss makes mea culpa. She says yes to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (namely the Minister of Finance) Jeremy Hunt who overturns the fiscal measures launched by his predecessor.
“I apologise, mistakes have been made. But now I am ready to lead the government and my party until the next elections.” But questions about her future still remain open. Is Liz Truss really still in power?
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Liz Truss still in power? Jeremy Hunt appointed Minister of Finance
The last card that the Liz Truss plays is to say yes to Jeremy Hunt. Hunt went to the House of Commons to present a mini-budget that completely contradicts the one presented just two weeks ago by his predecessor.
“We have taken action for a new course”, commented Truss. But, to tell the truth, it is not she who has taken it. The action contradicts all her ideological beliefs. In fact, the premier is so embarrassed that she sends Penny Mordaunt , the leader of the conservative majority in the municipalities, to answer questions from parliamentarians. A bad sign. “Liz Truss didn’t hide under a table,” Mordaunt said, but her words confirm this impression.
Truss difficult beginning as PM and Britain’s turbulent financial situation
Fiscal increases and cuts in public spending is Hunt’s recipe in the hope of restoring calm in the markets that have threatened to overwhelm the British economy in recent days.
Particularly, the new head of Finance, renamed by the newspapers the CEO of the government, has announced the cancellation of the reduction from 20 to 19 percent of taxes for those who have an income less than 35,000 pounds, VAT cuts for foreign visitors and other tax breaks.
Recently, the reduction from 45 to 40 percent of taxes to the richest taxpayers had already been abolished. In all, Hunt swept away two-thirds of Liz Truss’s financial reforms, including long-term public support for energy price increases.
Hunt’s appointment causes a breath of fresh air for the pound sterling
Hunt’s appointment and later intervention caused the pound sterling and some government bonds to rise slightly on Asian and then European markets. A temporary breath of fresh air for the government.
The “conspirators” Tories meet today, at least a hundred deputies, to decide how to force the premier to resign and with whom to replace her. Among the candidates are the same finance minister Hunt, the former finance minister Rishi Sunak, the leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt and the Minister of Defense Ben Wallace.
Is Liz Truss really still holding power?
The risk for the Conservatives is that a new change of prime minister. Which would be the fifth in the last six years, will make early elections inevitable.
But leaving Truss in Downing Street, many believe in her own party as her, would only postpone an even more disastrous defeat. Elected only last month, the premier is now deemed discredited and incapable.
