JEREMY Hunt’s leadership campaign manager says the next week or two will be crucial for the government of Liz Truss.
Asked if Jeremy Hunt was effectively the new Prime Minister, Philip Dunne said: “Jeremy Hunt was appointed as Chancellor on Friday. I think it was a very wise appointment by the Prime Minister, and he spent the weekend ensconced with her at Chequers, working out measures that need to be taken to provide stability to financial markets and to the credibility of the government.
“We will be hearing this morning…about what steps he intends to take, I think it was, again wise of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to bring forward their statement from 31st of October to today, in order to provide some clarity and certainty about what aspects of the previous mini budget will be taken forward.”
Asked by Tom Harwood if Mr Hunt was really calling the shots, he told GB News: “The whole issue has come up because there were uncounted proposals, unfunded proposals, which was what was spooking the markets. I think what was clear from what Jeremy said over the weekend, and his media round is that the direction of travel remains as set out by the Prime Minister.
“It’s the speed and the pace at which these measures can be taken which will be determined by the ability of the economy to afford it. And that’s why the sort of focus on growth remains at the front and centre at what the government is seeking to deliver.”
On Mr Hunt’s previous promise to reduce corporation tax, Mr Dunne said: “He shares the Prime Minister’s view that we need to be a low tax economy. It’s very much his mantra throughout his time in politics is to try to make the UK a very attractive place to bring business and investment into the UK.
“And having a low tax rate across various types of taxation is an important element of that in bringing new business into the UK. I think it is entirely consistent.”
He added: “Circumstances have changed over the last two months and he absolutely recognises he needs to deal with the reality of today in his new new role as Chancellor. And today’s reality is that there is a fiscal gap between the government’s spending plans and revenue generating plans and that has to be closed. That’s what I think we’ll be hearing about today and then when the OBR reports in due course.”
Mr Dunne said: “We’ve seen a lot of volatility over the last five or six weeks, but you could say over the last year or so in the fortunes of all the political parties and we’ve seen that the parties go up and can come down rapidly these days. It’s in the area of 24 news programmes like yours, Tom, which is helping to shape opinion, opinions change things more quickly than they used to do.
“I think we can absolutely recover from this. What we need, the government needs, is a period of stability and calm. The appointment of Jeremy Hunt is a key element to that.
“We’ll see what happens over the next week or two but I’m not going to sit here and join this very small number of voices calling for the Prime Minister to go. I think that’s the last thing we need at the moment, we need a period of calm and stable government.”
