Hunt can be the bridge over troubled waters

AS THE new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt took the stand yesterday – in the morning for his emergency fiscal statement and at the House of Commons in the afternoon – he didn’t come across like a man who had just landed one of the most difficult jobs in the country. Assured, yet without the glib hubris that characterised his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng, Mr Hunt showed signs of being someone who just might have the mettle to navigate the Government through the choppy waters that lie ahead.

It must have been a tough day for Liz Truss and we must commend Ms Truss for facing the Commons, albeit briefly. But yesterday was not about her – more about the cavalry in the form of Mr Hunt.

In his statement Mr Hunt reversed almost all of the tax cuts announced in the miniBudget. It was one of the biggest U-turns in political history, and one that offered huge opportunities for political opponents. Ms Truss’s lateness to the benches didn’t help, with even the verbally leaden Sir Keir Starmer managing to paraphrase Baroness Thatcher with a reasonable gag: “The lady’s not for turning up.”

The next milestone is October 31, when Mr Hunt delivers the new fiscal plan. No doubt that will be unpopular too, but Mr Hunt already shows an understanding that the mini-Budget lacked. As he said, “No government can control markets but every government can give certainty about the sustainability of public finances.”

This is surely right and, while it was important to support the idea of a growth plan, it was not right to borrow for tax cuts.

The spooked markets have calmed somewhat. That must continue. The Treasury claims that Mr Hunt’s combined U-turns will save £32billion a year.The savings include abandoning Mr Kwarteng’s 1.25 per cent cut to dividend tax, reversing a rise ushered in by ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak in April.

That Mr Hunt was a supporter of Mr Sunak in the leadership race has not gone unremarked.

A vexing issue in the new Chancellor’s in-tray is the energy price guarantee, which will now stay put until April, rather than last two years as Ms Truss had wanted. As Tory MP Sir Roger Gale put it, Mr Hunt is acting as “de facto” PM. Let’s hope his steely pragmatism can work with Ms Truss’s ideological purity, and that their differences can be put aside to the benefit of the country – not to mention the injured Conservative Party.