Liz Truss is into the last three and showing momentum, which is the point at which we should fret over the fate of the pound. Investors may be prepared to overlook loose talk about £30bn-worth of unfunded tax cuts – this a campaign, after all – but questioning the independence of the Bank of England is several grades more serious. That is the territory into which the foreign secretary veered at the weekend.
Or, at least, she seemed to do so. As well as supply-side reforms and getting public spending under control, Truss told the Sunday Telegraph she “would also have a very clear direction of travel on monetary policy”. The government should “look again” at the Bank’s mandate “to make sure it is tough enough on inflation”, she said.
