UK's Hunt says Truss still 'in charge' despite budget 180

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
16 Oct 2022 15:32

UK PM Liz Truss' new Chancellor of the Exchequer says the PM is still "in charge" of the country, not him.

Hunt was appointed chancellor on Friday after Kwasi Kwarteng was fired

After taking over as chancellor and doing away with most of UK PM Liz Truss's economic plan, Jeremy Hunt said that Truss was still in charge of the country.

Hunt told BBC that the PM was still leading the country despite her authority having been undermined by his decision to do away with her agenda.

Hunt will likely reveal a new Budget on October 31 to replace the mini-Budget proposed by Truss and his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, which caused market chaos and sank the Sterling to its lowest levels since 1971.

He further added that the "destination" hasn't changed, just "the way we're going to get there".

As for whether or not Hunt is looking to become Conservative leader again, he said, “I think having run two leadership campaigns and by the way, having failed in both of them, the desire to be leader has been clinically excised from me.”

Truss has faced major criticism just a month into her term as PM, from failed promises to failing policies. Her term has witnessed a great recession almost taking over the UK and her own party known as the Tories, decrying her actions as an unfit PM.

A previous poll revealed on September 30 that half of the British population thinks that Truss should resign. The 4,918 participants surveyed in the poll conducted revealed that only 3% think the mini-Budget had the right ideas and only a quarter of them think she should remain in office, while more than half also thought Kwarteng should resign.