CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt’s statement is unlikely to rally support for Liz Truss, Theresa May’s former chief of staff has said.
Asked if the Chancellor’s statement would restore economic stability and shore up the Prime Minister, he told GB News: “I’m not sure how much he’s going to do on the second one, but I think on the first one, it was a very welcome step in the right direction. It shows what a difference having someone who believes in fiscal responsibility in that job has made.
“If you look at the initial market reaction, we’ll have to see how it plays out. It’s positive and so this is an important first step in restoring the country’s credibility with financial markets.
“In terms of the Prime Minister’s position, by my count there were six further U-turns here from the original mini-budget and that’s on top of the five we’ve already had. So, what we’ve seen is a complete fileting of what the government announced a few weeks ago, a U-turn doesn’t even really begin to describe the scale of the shift in policy.”
Asked if the PM was dead in the water, in an interview with Gloria De Piero and Mark Longhurst on GB News, he said: “The original objective Liz Truss set – for what it’s worth – I think is right, which is that unless we can improve the underlying growth rate of our economy, the decisions that our politicians are going to have to make over the next few years are going to be very painful ones.
“What she got wrong was the way of going about that. And I think that is an important distinction to make here in terms of your question about whether having coffee with MPs will save her position. But ultimately, her future depends on the public perception of her and her government. And if the poll ratings stay as they are at the moment, there’s no way the Conservative Party is going to allow her to lead them into the next election.
” I thought she might have a few weeks to see if she could turn things around, but it feels to me that the mood is a bit bleaker than that.”
He added: “Technically the rules don’t allow her to be challenged for a year, the first year of leadership, but if we’ve learned anything over the last few years is that the rules of the 1922 Committee are not really worth the paper they’re written on, they can be changed if the overwhelming majority of MPs want them to be changed.
