New chancellor Jeremy Hunt given ‘clean slate’ to fix mini-budget
Less than 24-hours into the new job, chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt has been given a ‘clean slate’ to amend the controversial mini-budget.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Hunt singled out two key blunders in September’s mini-budget which rattled markets and public confidence with £45bn worth of tax cuts.
“There was two mistakes. It was wrong to cut the top rate of tax for the very highest earners at a time when we’re going to have to be asking for sacrifices from everyone to get through a very difficult period,” he said.
“And it was wrong to fly blind and to announce those plans without reassuring people with the discipline of the Office for Budget Responsibility that we can actually afford to pay for them. And both those things have either been put right or are in the process of being put right.”
Hunt, who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng yesterday, will meet treasury officials later today and prime minister Liz Truss on Sunday.
Kwarteng confirmed yesterday that he had been asked to step down by the prime minister.
“The fundamental thing the prime minister wants me to do, and I need to do, is to be completely honest with the country,” he added.