Jeremy Hunt’s economic plan turns the clock back to austerity

Hunt’s new policy turns the clock back to the tough measures imposed by David Cameron’s government after the 2010 election. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

An economic Suez. For once, comparisons with the humiliation suffered by Sir Anthony Eden’s government in 1956 are appropriate because within 72 hours of becoming chancellor, Jeremy Hunt has abandoned not just most of Kwasi Kwarteng’s planned tax cuts but the government’s entire growth strategy.

Eden was gone within a couple of months of sending UK forces into Egypt to retake the Suez canal and then being forced to pull them out again in the face of the threat of US action to undermine sterling.