Rishi Sunak may delay the highly-anticipated financial statement due on Halloween, a Cabinet minister has suggested, as he defended Suella Braverman’s return as home secretary.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly hinted on Wednesday that the new Prime Minister may put back the medium-term fiscal plan so he can ensure it “matches his priorities”.
Cleverly argued that a “short delay” to the plan and independent forecasts that had been brought forward to calm the spooked financial markets would not be a “bad thing at all”.
The Foreign Secretary also sought to justify the criticised re-appointment of Braverman to the role she was forced to quit from last week over a breach of the ministerial code.
He argued that she has now apologised for a “mistake” after sharing an official document and denied her re-appointment was part of a deal to buy Mr Sunak her support for the Tory leadership.
Sunak will take his first Prime Minister’s Questions at midday on Wednesday, facing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
First Sunak will gather his Cabinet for a meeting, a day after dumping nearly a dozen of Liz Truss’s top-tier ministers and reviving the careers of multiple ousted frontbenchers on his first day in office.
As expected, Jeremy Hunt was safe in the role of Chancellor as he prepares to set out the Government’s medium-term fiscal plan alongside Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.
Last prime minister Liz Truss was forced to U-turn and bring that plan forward to October 31 as she sought to calm the markets spooked by her disastrous mini-budget.
But, with traders appearing calmed by Sunak’s victory, Cleverly suggested it could be put back so the new Prime Minister can examine the details.
Cleverly said the date was set with “no expectation of a change of prime minister” as he laid the ground for it potentially being put back.
He told BBC Breakfast: “He will want some time with his Chancellor to make sure that the fiscal statement matches his priorities.
“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.”
Cleverly argued that “a short delay, in order to make sure that we get this right, I think that is not necessarily a bad thing at all”.