A few smiles at cabinet this morning, as the chancellor was set to deliver a tough message-spending cut are on the way, and every department will have to make them.
It’s the prime minister’s first formal meeting with her cabinet – although she held a reception with them last night – since firing her former chancellor and allowing her new one to tear up her economic strategy as she sat silently beside him.
Jeremy Hunt yesterday reversed almost all of the tax cuts which have not yet been enacted and went further on income tax by saying even Rishi Sunak’s plan to cut it in two years was no longer affordable.
Today he was poised to tell cabinet ministers that all spending is under review, from the health service – where seven million people are waiting for treatment – to defence spending, pensions, and schools, as he finalises his fiscal plan.
The prime minister, who cabinet ministers concede, was forced into a U-turn by the government’s creditors, is being described in normally friendly newspapers as a “lame duck” and a mourner at the funeral of her own policies, only just falling short of calling for her resignation.
As she enters a critical week in which Conservative MPs must decide whether she has the authority to continue even in the short-term, Ms Truss will meet groups of her MPs today.
She met the One Nation group of centrist Conservatives last night where I’m told she was relatively upbeat.
Tonight, she meets the European Research Group, most of whom backed her tax-cutting agenda and will be disappointed it’s no longer viable.
Her allies take heart from the fact that if MPs moved to oust her, the Tory factions would struggle to agree on a candidate who they could unite around.
With the polls looking increasingly dire, and unpopular decisions imminent, that can very soon change.
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Source: SkyNews