How far does Jeremy Hunt’s writ run?

Jeremy Hunt is a man who thinks he is in clear charge of government fiscal policy. After Liz Truss’s press conference yesterday which abandoned the corporation tax cut and opened the way to spending cuts, there were briefings to the papers that no more U-turns were coming. But on the media round on Saturday morning, Jeremy Hunt put the whole mini-Budget under review. He was clear that taxes would rise – in direct contradiction of what Truss had said on the campaign trail, spending wouldn’t go up as much as expected and that every department will have to find savings. The Sunday Times is now reporting that the cut in income tax will be delayed for a year, and return to the date that Rishi Sunak had originally proposed. We can expect Hunt to be asked about this when he appears on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. But the shift is another reminder that little remains of the mini-Budget and its growth plan.  

Hunt’s prescription of tax rises and spending cuts is the precise opposite of what Truss was offering during the leadership campaign. But as the government struggles to regain market credibility, this is what it is having to offer. Truss, who is now a prisoner of her Chancellor – imagine the market reaction if he quit, has to go along with it: she is in office but not in power. Even her longer-term promises, such as her pledge to get defence spending up to three percent of GDP by 2030, now appear to be in doubt.

There is an intriguing question about how much Hunt’s power as chief executive, to use his close ally Steve Brine’s phrase, extends into other areas. For example, Hunt is an advocate of interventionist public health policies, arguing they’ll reduce the medium term burden on the NHS. But Truss emphasised in her conference speech how she was junking the ban on buy one, get one free offers which would have applied to unhealthy foods and was meant to be one of the government’s anti-obesity interventions. Will Hunt push for a rethink on that?

Hunt may well buy the government some time with the markets. After Truss’s appearance yesterday, there were worries that the government didn’t yet accept the level of fiscal consolidation that was necessary. Hunt’s words today will have gone some way to dealing with that concern. But for this approach to work, all the cabinet will have to stick to the same script and the plan the government presents at the end of the month will have to be credible.