‘Didn’t disagree with single announcement!’ Hunt fiercely shuts down Reeves’ budget swipe

Jeremy Hunt hits back at Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Liz Truss’ new Chancellor hit out at his Labour opposite number Rachel Reeves during a heated statement to the House of Commons on Monday. Jeremy Hunt stood up in front of MPs and tore up Prime Minister Liz Truss’ economic strategy before defending his newly announced measures from attacks from the Labour Shadow Chancellor. 

Mr Hunt told MPs: “Behind the rhetoric, and I was listening very carefully, I don’t think she disagreed with a single one of the decisions that I announced to Parliament and that is important for the country and markets to know.

“And I think there is also agreement on the process of policy-making.

“I support the independence of the Bank of England, introduced by Gordon Brown, and I know she supports the independence of the OBR to set up by George Osborne.

“The whole Government supports the independence of those two important institutions.

Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves clash over budget u-turn (Image: BBC)

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves warned the Government the ‘damage has been done’ (Image: BBC)

“I’ve shown Conservatives can raise taxes, will she show Labour is willing to restrain spending?”

“I fully accept, and I don’t think that I could have been more clear that we have had to change some decisions made in the last few weeks, but what I reject wholeheartedly is her broader narrative about Conservative economic management.”

After defending the Government’s economic record since 2010, Mr Hunt added: “If she is preaching today the need for fiscal credibility, which I warmly welcome, can I just tell her this: the true test will be in two weeks’ time to see whether she supports public spending restraint.

Ms Reeves said of the new Chancellor: “The fourth in four months of chaos and fiasco as this Conservative Government spirals down the political plughole. But the damage has been done.

Liz Truss leaves after Jeremy Hunt’s address

“This is a Tory crisis made in Downing Street butt ordinary working people are paying the price.

“All that is left after these humiliating U-turns are higher mortgages for working people and higher bonuses for bankers.

“And their climb-down on energy support begs the question yet again – why won’t they extend a windfall tax on energy producers to help foot the bill?”

Ms Reeves told MPs Liz Truss has “no authority, no credibility, no plan for growth”, adding: “It is clear for all to see: the people who caused the chaos cannot be the people to fix the chaos. They are out of ideas, out of touch and out of time.”

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Liz Truss: Political Profile (Image: EXPRESS)

She said the Prime Minister should have addressed the Commons on Monday, adding: “But we know she could not do that with a shred of credibility given that the survival of this Government depends on smashing to smithereens everything she stands for, and now she is attempting to reverse everything she campaigned for, it’s not just impossible, it is absurd.

“The Prime Minister is barely in office, and she is certainly not in power. Only five days ago she said at Prime Minister’s Questions there would be ‘absolutely’ no public spending reductions.

“But after what we heard from the Chancellor today, every single public service is again at risk from the Conservatives, from our NHS nurses to our schools and to our servicemen and women, with the country paying the price for their incompetence.”

She said of Jeremy Hunt: “The latest office holder has been in Cabinet for nine of the last 12 years, at the centre of a government responsible for low growth and weakened public services, and him responsible for helping run the NHS into the ground; he was a big part of austerity season one and now he says the cure is austerity season two.”