The “budget” announced for 31 October is likely to be delayed to allow Rishi Sunak to examine the UK’s troubled finances more closely, the foreign secretary has suggested.
James Cleverly said the new prime minister might need more time before making the huge decisions expected next Monday – an event poised to set the UK back on a path to austerity.
Asked if the “medium term fiscal plan” would be delayed, he told BBC Radio 4: “It may well do. The prime minister has only just stepped in.
“That date was set by the previous prime minister in the anticipation that she would be able to work throughout this period of time on that with the chancellor.
“Obviously, things have changed. I don’t know whether we are able to stick to that.”
On BBC Breakfast, Mr Cleverly added: “The prime minister and the chancellor know they need to work quickly on this but they also want to get it right, so we’ll see what happens to that date.”
He denied a delay would bring more uncertainty to the financial markets, arguing “a short delay, in order to make sure that we get this right, I think that is not necessarily a bad thing at all”.
Jeremy Hunt, retained as chancellor by Mr Sunak, has warned of “eye-watering” decisions to balance the books, a task made harder by the market crash that followed the disastrous mini-budget.
He faces an estimated £30bn “black hole”, making steep spending cuts inevitable in the absence of major tax rises, although a beefed-up windfall tax on the high profits of energy generators is expected.
Mr Cleverly also denied Mr Sunak did a “grubby” deal with scandal-hit Suella Braverman to bring her back as home secretary – prompting a claim he is “insulting the intelligence” of the public.
The new prime minister is under fire for the shock return of Ms Braverman – just six days after she was sacked for a security breach – in apparent payback for her backing his leadership campaign.
But the foreign secretary claimed the home secretary is admired for her “very important crime-fighting agenda”.
“I don’t think he needed the endorsement of any one MP because the numbers speak for themselves – he had a clear lead,” he insisted, on Sky News.
The foreign secretary was told people would be “screaming at the television at the idea that their intelligence is being insulted” by such a claim, after Ms Braverman breached the ministerial code.
Mr Cleverly also suggested Ms Sunak – like Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – would refuse to appoint an independent ethics adviser to watch over sleaze allegations against ministers.
He argued the Cabinet Secretary could perform the role and that an adviser is not “the silver bullet that some people are suggesting”.
