Jeremy Hunt has insisted that Liz Truss is still in charge of her government, as he signalled plans to effectively scrap the economic vision that brought her to power.
The new Chancellor, brought in to replace the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng, is now widely seen as the most powerful figure in Westminster as he attempts to re-shape the Prime Minister 's own economic plans to reassure the markets.
He told the BBC 's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that Truss remains "in charge" and insisted voters can still put their faith in her.
"She's listened. She's changed. She's been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack," he said.
"What we're going to do is to show not just what we want but how we're going to get there."
It comes ahead of a crunch two weeks for the Government, as Hunt bids to put together a new fiscal plan - effectively a full Budget - that can restore some order to the chaos of Truss's first few weeks in office.
While the new Chancellor warned of "difficult decisions" and fresh "efficiency savings" for all departments, he declined to get into specifics about potential new cuts or what promises could be axed in a bid to save money.
He told the BBC : "I'm not taking anything off the table. I want to keep as many of those tax cuts as I possibly can because our long-term health depends on being a low-tax economy. And I very strongly believe that."
One measure being considered is a delay to Kwarteng's aim of reducing the basic rate of income tax by a year, according to the Sunday Times.
Truss was meeting Hunt at Chequers on Sunday, as rumours continue to swirl of plots to oust the Prime Minister. Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, did little to quash those rumours during an appearance on Sky News, when he declined to deny that MPs are considering installing a new leader.
"Of course, colleagues are unhappy with what is going on," he said.
"We're all talking to see what can be done about it."
While he stopped short of calling for the Prime Minister to go just yet, he did launch an extraordinary attack on the Government and the guiding philosophy of the mini-budget.
"I worry that, over the past few weeks, the Government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free market experiments. And this is not where the country is. There's been one horror story after another."
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