IMF’s anti-tax cut stance may give Rishi Sunak cover to resist Tory right

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, with the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, at a cabinet meeting. Photograph: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street

Jeremy Hunt was quick to welcome the International Monetary Fund’s improved economic forecasts. Britain was now on track for the lowest rate of growth outside a recession in the postwar era. Still, it was a “big upgrade” from the Washington-based fund compared with a month ago, the chancellor said.

In its annual article IV health check on the British economy, the IMF said it expected gross domestic product to grow by 0.4% this year, tearing up its estimate in April of a 0.3% contraction.