As Liz Truss fights to keep her job less than a month into her term, the new finance minister of Britain, Jeremy Hunt, said on Saturday that some taxes would increase and tough spending decisions would be required.

Truss removed Kwasi Kwarteng from her position as chancellor of the exchequer on Friday in an effort to calm the financial markets, which have been in turmoil for three weeks. She also threw out some of their contentious economic plan. View More

Less than 40 days after taking office, she has turned to Hunt to help save her premiership due to the poor ratings the ruling Conservative Party and the prime minister personally are receiving in the polls, as well as the fact that many of her own lawmakers are asking how rather than if Truss should be removed.

Hunt bluntly assessed the situation the nation was in while touring TV and radio studios, saying Truss and Kwarteng had made mistakes. He added, "We will have some very difficult decisions ahead."

Stability, according to Hunt, is what the public wants, what the markets want, and what the nation urgently needs. "The markets cannot be governed by a chancellor. However, I can demonstrate that we can pay for our tax and spending plans, though doing so will necessitate making some very difficult choices regarding both spending and taxes."

On a platform of significant tax cuts to spur growth, Truss won the leadership race to succeed Boris Johnson, which Kwarteng duly announced last month. However, the markets crashed because there were no specifics provided regarding how the cuts would be paid for.

She has now abandoned her proposal to maintain it at current levels and said a levy on businesses would increase instead of cutting taxes for high earners. However, it's unclear whether that has gone far enough to placate investors. View More

On October 31, Hunt is scheduled to present the government's medium-term budget plans, which will be a crucial test of its capacity to demonstrate that it can regain the public's trust in its economic policy. He stated that Truss's plans might undergo additional modifications.

Giving certainty about public finances, including how we'll pay for every dollar received through decisions we make regarding taxes and spending,I can provide certainty and contribute to the creation of stability in very significant ways, he said.

He warned that spending would not increase as much as people had hoped, and that all government agencies would need to find more efficiencies than they had anticipated.

"Some taxes won't be lowered as quickly as people would like, while others will increase. So it will be challenging, "He said, adding that he would discuss the strategies with Treasury officials on Saturday before meeting with Truss on Sunday.

'MISTAKES MADE'


Kwarteng's fiscal statement from September 23 set off a financial market backlash so intense that the Bank of England (BoE) had to step in to stop pension funds from becoming entangled in the confusion as borrowing costs skyrocketed.

Hunt, an experienced minister who is regarded as a safe pair of hands by many in his party, stated that he agreed with Truss's fundamental strategy of reviving economic growth but added that their strategy had failed.

"In the previous few weeks, some mistakes were made. For that reason, I'm seated here. Cutting the top rate of taxation while everyone is being asked to make sacrifices was a mistake "said he.

It was also a mistake, according to Hunt, to "fly blind" and create the tax plans without allowing the Office for Budget Responsibility to verify the data.

Hunt's appointment as Britain's fourth finance minister in the past four months is evidence of the political crisis that has engulfed the country ever since Johnson was fired as a result of a string of scandals.

In an election, Truss should be evaluated based on her performance over the following 18 months, not just the previous 18 days, according to Hunt.

She might not have that opportunity, though. Less than a third of Conservative lawmakers supported Truss during the leadership race, and since taking office, she has appointed her supporters, alienating those who back her rivals.

Although the appointment of Hunt—who ran for leader of the party himself and later supported her main rival, the former finance minister Rishi Sunak—was seen as a sign of her outward outreach, it did little to appease some of her party's critics.

After the events of Friday, one of these Conservative lawmakers told Reuters, "It's over for her."

The British government bond market will function without the BoE's emergency buying support for the first time since September 28 on Monday, which will be the next critical test. Following Truss's announcement, the price of gilts fell late on Friday.

Newspapers reported that Truss's position was in danger, but it was unclear how she could be replaced because neither the party nor the nation wanted to hold another leadership election. View More

The Daily Mail tabloid, which had previously given Liz Truss strong support, wrote in its editorial that even Truss's most devoted supporters must now wonder how she can survive after seeing the situation through the most idealistic lenses possible.

But what's the other option?