U.K. Prime Minister Liz TrussTruss unleashed chaos in the financial markets three weeks ago with a plan to slash taxes while simultaneously funding massive energy subsidies. Her finance minister is now gone, along with most of that plan and arguably her authority.It was not Truss but House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt who appeared before Parliament today to explain the departure of Truss' close ideological ally Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Truss' leadership rival Rishi Sunak had warned that she risked supercharging inflation and forcing up interest rates — claims she dismissed as “project fear” from the “anti-growth coalition.” Unable to steady the situation, Truss took the humiliating step of handing economic policy over to Hunt.Hunt acknowledged today that the government was partially to blame for the U.K.'s dire fiscal straits and said "nothing is off the table" — including potentially scrapping Truss' funding pledges for defense and pensions — to restore "stability." His performance seemed to calm the markets, for now.
Voters generally feel the same way, says James Johnson, whose firm JL Partners has been conducting focus groups on Truss. "There was anger toward Boris Johnson. With Liz Truss, it's more despair. People think she's not up to the job."
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Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »