Ahen the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt – who is fourth in four months – gave the BBC his first full-length interview in his new capacity, it was against an almost eerie backdrop. The Sunday press was rife with speculation of a coup against Prime Minister Liz Truss. When asked who was in charge in the government, Hunt replied: the prime minister – only to continue to dismantle her program afterwards. After Truss had already cashed in on the heart of their “growth plan” in the past few days, Hunt has now also buried the philosophy behind it. Instead of the promised tax cuts, citizens would have to adjust to temporary increases, he announced. Truss wanted to relieve the wealthy and businesses. Hunt suddenly spoke of a “compassionate government” that has the concerns of the little people in mind.
Many see the change at the top of the Treasury as an act of desperation. The “Sunday Times” even spoke of a “death cult” by the Tories. While Hunt is an alert pragmatist, not averse to opportunism, he has rarely found himself on the side of conservatives close to Truss in recent years. The long-time health minister and short-term foreign minister had tried twice to become party leader and prime minister himself. Both against Boris Johnson and, three years later, against Liz Truss, Hunt presented himself as a centrist. When he was eliminated in the first round of voting that summer, he supported Rishi Sunak, who relentlessly warned throughout the candidate race that Truss’s economic course would end in disaster.