Liz Truss’ premiership remains in peril this weekend, after she sacked her chancellor and ditched a major chunk of her mini-budget in an extraordinary gamble to stay in power. It was unclear late on Friday whether such drastic actions could be enough to keep her in Downing Street, with the markets remaining jittery and reports of Tory MPs plotting intensely to replace her.
After three weeks of turmoil on the financial markets in the wake of Kwasi Kwarteng’s £43 billion mini-budget tax giveaway, Ms Truss ended days of frenzied speculation by forcing her friend out of office and U-turning on her commitment to drop the planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%, a central plank of her leadership campaign.
Jeremy Hunt, twice a Tory leadership contender and a former foreign secretary, has been parachuted in as a safe pair of hands in Number 11. Later on Saturday, he will make his first set of media appearances as he seeks to shore up political and economic confidence in the administration.
