Liz Truss has a closed face, faces straight ahead, sitting in her designated spot in the House of Commons. The scene is amazing, almost painful: on Monday afternoon, October 17, her leader listens to her. new Chancellor of the Exchequer (British Chancellor of Finance), Jeremy HuntHe methodically destroys the “mini-budget” that he has fiercely defended since it was made public on September 23. She is still the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but she has clearly lost the game.

The leader has just been deprived of her main political measure, which she had placed at the center of her conservative primary campaign. Now it is the financial markets that dictate the pace to the government and Jeremy Hunt. The latter, appointed on October 14 in replacement of Kwasi Kwarteng, architect of the “mini-budget” by Liz Truss, took the helm in an attempt to restore their confidence, lost after investors received a particularly bad reception for Liz Truss’s economic plans: massive unfunded tax cuts. The Bank of England had to intervene on several occasions to support British government bonds.

No more attacks against a supposed “coalition against growth” belittling their plans or dreams of Singapore-on-Thames that Liz Truss, a follower of “less state and taxes possible”, I hoped to put into practice. the ” priority ” of the country is now the “stability”, criticized the new Finance Minister. Jeremy Hunt, former health minister for David Cameron and Theresa May, considered a moderate in Tory ranks, announced the abandonment of the planned reduction from 20% to 19% of the first income tax bracket. He also confirmed the increase from 19% to 25% of corporate tax in April 2023.

“Austerity, Season 2”

Twice unsuccessful candidate for prime minister, Jeremy Hunt, even sacrificed part of the massive £100 billion (€115 billion) aid plan announced by Liz Truss on September 8, two days after arriving in Downing Street. This mechanism intended to limit household energy bills to an average of £2,500 a year for the next two years had been fairly well received by the media and markets, and the leader was taking advantage of it to avoid awkward questions about the “mini-budget”. This aid should now be limited to six months: from April 2023, it will only benefit the most vulnerable households, Hunt said.

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