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By William Booth and Karla Adam<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Britain\u2019s brand new finance minister scrapped the remaining elements of Prime Minister Liz Truss\u2019s signature taxation policy on Monday, a move that seemed to successfully reassure markets but left many wondering who is now in charge of the government.<\/p>\n
Truss stayed on the sidelines while Jeremy Hunt \u2013 a political rival who was tapped on Friday for the top cabinet post \u2013 announced that the government would not slash taxes, but instead allow them to rise.<\/p>\n
Truss left it to House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, another rival, to defend the government\u2019s U-turns in Parliament, where both opposition lawmakers and some mutinous politicians from the ruling Conservative Party are calling on the prime minister to quit after just six weeks in office. It was another disastrous day for Truss.<\/p>\n
The first the public heard from her was in a late night BBC broadcast. She said she wanted to \u201csay sorry for the mistakes that have been made\u201d but added that she was \u201csticking around,\u201d and would \u201clead the Conservatives into the next general election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer pushed the refrain that Truss was \u201cin office but not in power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the prime minister?\u201d Starmer asked rhetorically. \u201cHiding away, dodging questions, scared of her own shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some commentators are speaking about when she goes, not if. One British tabloid is live-streaming a head of iceberg lettuce placed next to a picture of Truss and asking which will last longer.<\/p>\n
An editorial in the Sunday Times declared: \u201cTruss has wrecked the Conservative Party\u2019s reputation for fiscal competence and humiliated Britain on the international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSenior Tories must now act in the national interest and remove her from Downing Street as quickly as possible,\u201d the editorial continued, while also calling Hunt the \u201cde factor prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunt is a moderate Conservative who is considered to be a safe pair of hands, though he has twice lost contests to lead his party. He assured the country that Truss was \u201cin charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the most challenging form of leadership to accept the decision you have made has to be changed,\u201d he told Parliament. \u201cAnd the prime minister has done that, and she has done so willing because she understands the importance of economic stability, and I respect her for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Truss was installed at Downing Street as the choice of 160 000 dues-paying members of the Conservative Party \u2013 about 0.3 percent of the population. The growth-through-tax-cuts plan that helped propel her candidacy, and prompted admiring comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, has now been thoroughly gutted.<\/p>\n
Tax cuts for the wealthy didn\u2019t go down well with a public that is facing record inflation and soaring bills. But the government\u2019s about-face had far more to do with bond traders, who were spooked by the level of borrowing the plan would require.<\/p>\n
Hunt came in after two of the most controversial parts of the plan had already been scrapped. And still he pumped the brakes hard, stressing that the debt and spending would be new watchwords.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the growth plan three weeks ago,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cThere will be more difficult decisions, I\u2019m afraid, on both tax and spending as we deliver our commitment to get debt falling as a share of the economy over the medium term.\u201d<\/p>\n Hunt also announced that the government\u2019s popular plan to help with energy bills for households \u2013 a \u201clandmark policy supporting millions of people through a difficult winter\u201d \u2013 will not continue for two years but last only until April. The government will then move to a \u201cnew approach\u201d that will \u201ccost the taxpayer significantly less.\u201d<\/p>\n The markets have been receptive to the government\u2019s backtracking. The falling British pound has stabilized. The country\u2019s leading stock index, the FTSE 100, was up. And the cost of government borrowing was coming down \u2013 though still higher than it was before Truss took over.<\/p>\n But British politics remains in turmoil.<\/p>\n Although there is no general election in sight, two polls published Monday showed the Labour Party more than 30 points ahead of the Conservatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWho voted for this?\u201d signs have been popping up at protests and in opposition lawmakers\u2019 social media feeds.<\/p>\n There is hand-wringing among the Conservatives, too.<\/p>\n \u201cHer position politically is utterly untenable,\u201d said Jonathan Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool. \u201cIn any sensible democracy she would have gone by now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe campaigned on a platform of tax cuts, a dash for growth and supply-side reform \u2013 every element of that was dismantled by Jeremy Hunt,\u201d he said. If Truss survives, \u201cit\u2019s only because Conservative Party grandees can\u2019t agree on a replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n The Conservatives are known for ruthlessly jettisoning their leaders. Boris Johnson won them a landslide victory in the 2019 general election, but after scandals \u2013 and a Conservative tailspin in the polls \u2013 he was forced to resign. Truss\u2019s personal poll ratings are worse than Johnson\u2019s ever were, and her party\u2019s poll ratings have nosedived.<\/p>\n People would look \u201cpretty askance\u201d if the party staged another leadership contest so soon, Damian Green, a prominent Conservative, acknowledged on BBC Radio 4. But asked if he wanted Truss to be leading the party when the next general election happens, Green offered only backhanded support. \u201cIf she leads us into the next election, that will mean that the next two years have been a lot more successful than the past four weeks have been.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting Conservatives to rally around someone to replace Truss may indeed be a challenge.<\/p>\n Although Hunt has taken on a powerful role, he\u2019s hardly a rising star within the party. He was soundly beaten by Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership contest and was eliminated in the first round of voting this past summer after getting just 18 votes from fellow lawmakers.<\/p>\n A wing of the Conservatives would like to see the top job going to former finance minister Rishi Sunak, the runner-up in the summer\u2019s leadership contest. <\/p>\n Many of his economic predictions have turned out to be prescient. But he is disliked by Johnson loyalists, who accuse him of leading the revolt that brought down the last prime minister. And Conservative lawmakers may invite other problems if they overrule the party\u2019s grass roots by promoting Sunak.<\/p>\n Mordaunt, who is more popular with the grass roots, has been discussed as another contender. She wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, however, that this was not the time to change prime ministers. \u201cOur country needs stability,\u201d she said, \u201cnot a soap opera.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the weekend, President Biden was asked by a reporter what he thought of Truss\u2019s \u201ctrickle-down plan that she had to walk back from.\u201d<\/p>\n Usually, US presidents don\u2019t comment on an ally\u2019s budget, but Biden weighed in, saying: \u201cWell, it\u2019s predictable. I wasn\u2019t the only one that thought it was a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy at a time when \u2013 anyway, I just think \u2013 I disagreed with the policy, but that\u2019s up to Great Britain to make that judgment, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Video:<\/strong><\/p>\n