More mini-Budget U-turns coming today

In a sign of how nervous the government still is about the state of the gilts market, the Treasury has just made a pre-market announcement that Jeremy Hunt will bring forward further measures from the ‘Medium Term Fiscal Plan’ today – in other words, more measures from the mini-Budget will be abandoned. 

The Treasury says Hunt has briefed Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, and the Debt Management Office on these plans. We will get details on these measures when Hunt makes a statement to the Commons later today. 

Presumably this is what Hunt and Liz Truss agreed at Chequers when they met on Sunday. The fact that Hunt is making this statement is another illustration of the power he now holds in government, he is Truss’s gaoler. It also reveals that the new Chancellor was nervous about how the market would react today and so has felt the need to bring forward more U-turns in an attempt to reassure them.