Jeremy Hunt welcomed by Tories as he tears up Liz Truss’s fiscal plan

theguardian.com:

Senior Conservatives on Saturday welcomed Jeremy Hunt’s arrival as chancellor, saying he had effectively “taken over” running the government from Liz Truss after he unceremoniously dumped her tax-cutting agenda on his first day in office.

One senior Conservative MP said it was a huge relief to have someone in charge at the Treasury who was able to admit to recent mistakes and had made it his mission to restore the government’s credibility with the markets. “It is just so good to have a grownup in the room, someone who commands respect and who has experience after this period of utter madness.”

A former cabinet minister added that Hunt’s media interviews on Saturday, warning that taxes would have to rise and suggesting spending would have to be reined in, meant he was effectively running the show. “Jeremy is saying: I’m in charge now, move over,” said the former minister.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey also appeared to be happy with the changes in Downing Street. Speaking in Washington, he said he had spoken to Hunt on Friday and had a “meeting of minds” on the issue of “fiscal sustainability”.

It is an unconventional approach, to say the least, for a new chancellor of the exchequer to appear on radio and television within hours of taking over at the Treasury, and then to unceremoniously rip up almost the entire economic policy of the prime minister who has just appointed him.

And equally unusual for that new chancellor to admit – without any attempt at obfuscation – that the PM who just elevated him committed huge policy blunders that sent the markets into near meltdown and government borrowing costs soaring, before she invited him in to try to end the crisis she caused.

But that is what Hunt did on Saturday, seemingly