Prime Minister Liz Truss is to hold a press conference today amid speculation of a major U-turn on Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.
The Chancellor flew back to London on Friday for crisis talks after cutting short a visit to the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Washington. It follows days of turmoil in the markets amid concerns about the impact of his £43b tax giveaway on the public finances.
Now Downing Street has announced the Prime Minister will hold a press conference later today. It is not yet known if Mr Kwarteng will be present at the briefing.
Read More: Liz Truss insists Government is ‘absolutely’ not planning public spending cuts
Meanwhile, at Westminster, there were reports of fevered plotting among Tory MPs amid suggestions that Ms Truss's two main rivals for the Tory leadership over the summer - Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt - could be installed at the head of a new administration.
Before he left the United States, Mr Kwarteng initially insisted he stood by his economic growth plan and would be setting out how he intended to get the public finances back on track in a statement on October 31 as planned. However, few MPs believe he can afford to wait that long, and in a later interview with The Daily Telegraph he said only "let's see" when asked if he could ditch his promise on corporation tax.
The commitment to scrap the planned increase in the levy on corporate profits from 19% to 25% is widely seen as likely to be the first element to go if the expected U-turn goes ahead.
The senior Conservative MP Mel Stride, who chairs the Commons Treasury Committee, said it was essential that the Government acted decisively if it was to restore confidence. "The danger here is that they decide they are going to nibble at the edges of this and don't think that will cut it," he told the BBC. "You could end up in that circumstance in the worst of worlds - that you've U-turned but it doesn't settle the markets."
A Treasury spokesman said: "After completing a successful series of meetings at the IMF, the Chancellor is returning to London today to continue work at pace on the medium-term fiscal plan."
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