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The U.K’s fourth finance minister this year, Jeremy Hunt, was appointed by Prime Minister Liz Truss on Friday. Today, he unraveled the economic agenda she established with his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng, who was fired after just 38 days on the job, following his “mini budget” last month that entailed a series of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy that angered the public, spooked markets, and saw the British pound tumble to a 37-year low.
When Hunt received word that a “Liz Truss” wanted to talk to him about the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer, as the position of finance minister is known in the U.K., he assumed it was a prank, Robert Peston, the political editor of ITV News, reported.
Hunt’s instatement was very real, however, with Truss calling him “one of the most experienced and widely respected government ministers and parliamentarians” in a news conference Friday. Many view Truss’s decision to appoint Hunt as a move to calm investors’ nerves, and fend off calls for her to step aside. (She took office as Prime Minister last month after an internal party ballot representing less than 1% of the British electorate chose her as party leader to replace Boris Johnson.)
Hunt, a two-time leadership candidate who backed Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak in the 2022 Conservative leadership contest, is now arguably the most powerful politician in Britain. He wielded that power on Monday to scrap “almost all” the deeply controversial tax cuts outlined in Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
Below, what to know about the U.K.’s new finance minister.
Who is Jeremy Hunt? What is his background?
Many remember Hunt for his prior bids to be leader of the Conservative party; he lost to Boris Johnson in 2019 and was knocked out of the first round of voting in the 2022 leadership contest, securing the support of…
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Source : time
