LONDON — Britain’s new finance minister
warned Saturday of tax hikes to come as he admitted to “mistakes” made by his
short-lived predecessor in a disastrous budget.
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Jeremy Hunt was making his first comments to media
following his appointment as chancellor of the exchequer by Prime Minister
Liz Truss, whose own future is in doubt mere weeks after she took office.
“We will have some very difficult decisions ahead,”
Hunt told Sky News, warning that “all government departments” face spending
restraint.
“And some taxes will not be cut as quickly as people
want. Some taxes will go up,” he added.
Tax cuts were the centerpiece of the budget
announced by Hunt’s predecessor
Kwasi Kwarteng on September 23. But they were
financed through billions in more borrowing, causing panic on financial
markets, which has fed into higher costs for British households.
Truss fired Kwarteng on Friday and rowed back
further on the planned tax cuts, but is facing threats of being toppled by
senior Conservative MPs aghast at the party’s collapse in opinion polls since
she replaced Boris Johnson on September 6.
“There were mistakes,” acknowledged Hunt, a former
health and foreign secretary who is seen as a centrist Tory brought in by Truss
to steady her listing ship.
Kwarteng and Truss had initially wanted to cut taxes
for the highest earners, and had presented their budget without independent
forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility, Hunt noted in summarizing
two key mistakes.
“The prime minister’s recognized that, that’s why
I’m here.”
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