After his crisis talks with Liz Truss at Chequers, Jeremy Hunt was photographed being driven from the PM’s country retreat sitting in the back of a government car.
Earlier, when the new chancellor was asked in a TV interview who was in charge, him or the PM, he insisted it was her. But MPs believe Mr Hunt is now an all-powerful back seat driver.
Mr Hunt wasn’t even being driven from Chequers in a top-of-the-range Range Rover as befits his new status as a senior Cabinet minister, but a humble and less conspicuous people carrier.
And the embattled PM will be hoping her new chancellor can carry the British people with him, as he embarks on more U-turns designed to steady the nerves of markets, Tory MPs and voters.
The latest verdict of the markets will come early on Monday morning, hours before MPs return to Westminster after taking soundings in their constituencies over the weekend. Those soundings are likely to have been brutal.
The voters’ latest verdict will come in the next snap opinion polls. And while jittery Tory MPs will hope the polls can’t get any worse for their party, it’s possible they will.
A poll of polls analysed by Sky News confirms the findings of recent surveys suggesting Labour’s average lead is nudging 30 points, the biggest since Tony Blair’s honeymoon period after his 1997 landslide.
After the turmoil and chaos of the past week, the mood of Conservative MPs is mutinous. One senior backbencher, Sir Crispin Blunt, was first to declare publicly that the game is up.
Truss loyalists will claim, with some justification, that Sir Crispin is not the most reliable witness. He defended former Tory MP Imran Khan, who was convicted of sexual assault, though he later apologised.
But the Reigate MP, who is now quitting at the next election, was only saying publicly what many Conservative MPs are saying privately.
Source : skynews
