Jeremy Hunt: New UK Finance Minister warns that taxes will go up and there will be cuts | international

Britain’s new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, knows he faces a race against time, a virtually impossible task: to save the term of Prime Minister Liz Truss, which most Conservative MPs practically take for granted. On Saturday, at 7:30 a.m. (8:30 PST), Hunt began a round of interviews on various television sets, with the goal of doing what has not yet been separated from his boss or predecessor in office, Kwasi Quarting. This Friday in a surprising way – I knew how to do it. He admitted mistakes, explained how the cycle would be corrected, and told the British that bad times were waiting for taxes to rise and some public services would be cut off.

“There were mistakes. It was a mistake, when we were prepared to make complex decisions about taxes and cuts to public spending, to abolish the maximum personal income tax rate for high earners,” Hunt admitted to the BBC, as part of his series of regrets. “It was a mistake to act blindly and to present these measures without being backed by a report from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), showing that the accounts were coming out,” the new minister said.

When the new government presented its landmark tax cut proposal, estimated to be worth €60 billion, on 23 September, the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer refused to use the usual procedure to determine what was, for all intents and purposes, “small”. budget”, because of its repercussions on the public debt. In addition to the tax exemption, it launched a plan to provide direct aid to households and businesses, to cover gas and electricity bills, worth about another 200 thousand million. Kwarteng did not want to attach the measures to a report from the OBR, because it was He knows that the independent body will object to what would be a noticeable gap in the budget. Facing the uneasiness of the markets and the collapse in the value of the pound and Treasuries, he was forced to pledge a formal presentation of his financial plan, accompanied by the mandatory report, earlier than expected. He spoke of November 23. No He convinces no one. He moved him until October 31. It was not enough either. By that time, investor confidence in Truss and his minister was already at rock bottom.

This Saturday, Hunt tried to start rebuilding parts of that confidence, which made the prime minister’s appearance on Friday even worse. Tense, evasive, with answers like those of a robot, confined to repeating that its main task was to restore the economic stability of the country — which it had destroyed with its own actions — Truss conveyed to Conservative MPs the feeling that his days at the head of government were numbered, and he further destabilized the markets. The pound fell again, after 24 hours of some euphoria at the announcement of the helm of the prime minister, as well as the value of public debt securities for a period of 30 years.

Taxes will not go down as much as some citizens would like. And Hunt warned that some would go up. “But as we make these decisions, we are making a double commitment: We will help all businesses, families and vulnerable individuals who are struggling to move forward in a very difficult situation. We will always put them in our heads as a priority, because we are a compassionate conservative government,” he added.

In this way, the politician on the ideological side of Truss will try to salvage his disastrous mandate. Although some suspect that Hunt, by the way, is also putting himself before a break that clearly seems inevitable. With his reputation as a moderate, conciliatory and centrist, the new minister seeks to bring calm to the markets – stormy sessions are expected to begin on Monday -; Picture the seriousness and toughness of citizens, and the possibilities of getting out of the mud, with a message of “merciful conservatism,” to fellow Conservative MPs, who see how opinion polls predict a historic electoral disaster.

This was the main blame for conservatives for gears. Not only has the UK’s reputation and economic standing around the world destroyed by a fanatical and extremist administration, but it has also once again conveyed to the citizens the image of an obscene party, concerned more with cutting taxes on the rich than getting them. The majority of the population came out of the swamp.

Minister Kwarteng, who only learned of his sudden dismissal on Friday when he got off his plane back to London from Washington and began reading the headlines, tried to say goodbye elegantly to his girlfriend and ally Liz Truss. But to a small circle of friends, according to media reports such as times also daily mailHe had previously expressed to them his conviction that the prime minister “gained only a few weeks” by abandoning him.

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