It was revealing that Jeremy Hunt was put forward by the government for the Sunday political shows on TV – unusually, only three weeks after his last Sunday media round on the eve of his Budget.
The chancellor’s latest appearance was a tacit admission that his package, including a two-percentage-point cut in national insurance contributions, has failed to move the political dial – to the frustration of the Conservative MPs who are starting to fear that nothing will dent Labour’s 20-point lead in the opinion polls.
True, Mr Hunt wanted the opportunity to bask in the brighter economic news since his Budget – a sharp drop in inflation and a return to limited economic growth which should soon bring the UK’s recession to an end. Ministers hope that wages outpacing inflation will generate a “feelgood factor”, and that the Bank of England will soon start to bring down interest rates so mortgage rates fall, undoing some of the damage from Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget.
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