Inside Politics: The lady is in a tailspin

Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

If you’re here for jokes about the Anti-Growth Coalition then sorry – I’m afraid I’ve run out. Besides, the gags are kind of writing themselves these days, aren’t they? Liz Truss, whose leadership was supposed to be based on the lady who was famously not for turning, is now in a tailspin as she mulls another reverse ferret on her economic agenda.

Parliament is not sitting.

Greg Hands, the trade minister, is on Times Radio at 8.20am.

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, was on Sky News at 7.30am.

What a day, chancellor? Following another 24 hours of chaos at Westminster – where nobody was quite sure whether or not Liz Truss would U-turn on her mini-Budget (expected over the weekend) – Kwasi Kwarteng is hot-footing it back to London from Washington a day early. He had been hob-nobbing with other leaders from around the world at the International Monetary Fund, whose chief essentially told him off over last month’s unfunded tax cuts.

The chancellor made a dash for the last flight out of the US capital last night as he and the prime minister came under intense pressure to change course on their tax-cutting agenda. During the day yesterday, it was no longer clear whether No 10 or No 11 was in charge of economic policy, with the former briefing out that a U-turn on corporation tax and other measures was now on the table, while Kwarteng told broadcasters he was determined to implement his plan for growth. Clear as mud then? Spare a thought for Hands, out on the broadcast round this morning. Who knows what the line will be by the time he gets to his next interview?

Kwarteng, who touches down in the next few hours, will hold crunch talks with the PM and he “really wants to engage not only with government colleagues but also MPs...because fiscal responsibility is absolutely core to what we’re trying to do”, a source close to him said. It appears that something is going to have to give.

There is another crunch point for Kwarteng today as the Bank of England wraps up its government bond-buying scheme aimed at reassuring the UK’s financial markets after some pensions funds were said to be at risk of collapsing as the chancellor’s financial statement caused chaos in the markets. At 4pm, when the intervention ends, it will become clear whether or not the multi-billion pound 14-day package was enough time for the most at-risk funds to get their houses in order. Meanwhile, the pound rose against the dollar yesterday as talk of a U-turn intensified.

Both Truss and Kwarteng face a dire set of headlines this morning, with the usually supportive Daily Mail splash reporting that the PM has “17 days to save her job”. According to The Times, it may already be too late: senior Tories are holding talks about replacing Truss and Kwarteng with a joint ticket of Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader and Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor who lost out to Truss in the Tory leadership contest.

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It is a busy day for Miliband, who will make his way to Bassetlaw after touring the broadcast studios.

He will meet with Jo White, the party’s candidate there, to discuss with locals their concerns about the potential for fracking in the area.

Ahead of the visit, Labour pledged to ban fracking “once and for all” as it hit out at suggestions that the government could move to ban solar farms from much of England’s farmland.

Labour is working to bring forward an opposition day motion to maintain the current ban, Miliband is expected to tell locals during his visit.

As Inside Politics reported yesterday, the party is already in talks with rebel Tory MPs to block Truss’s move to allow fracking at sites across England.

See all of The Independent’s daily cartoons here

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Kwarteng when asked if he will be in his job this time next month.

“Absolutely. 100%. I’m not going anywhere.”

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on chancellor’s woes.

“Grave days for the govt and the economy – chancellor making his way back to the UK having said no change, but heavy briefing back home No 10 will ditch plans to survive, and today Bank of England due to withdraw some support from the markets.”

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