An interview with the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, continues on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked if he could promise that benefits would rise with inflation, he wouldn't be drawn on specifics.

He said: "I am very sensitive to the needs of people right at the bottom of the income scale and I'm not going to make that commitment within hours of taking on this job.

Indeed the right time to do that is when I have seen the figures in the round and discussed them with the PM."

He again said that "there are going to be difficult decisions across the board."

Later in the interview, he is asked whether there should be a general election.

Hunt says: "What the country wants now is stability.

"[Truss] has been prime minister for less than five weeks.

"When we are judged at a general election, we will be judged by what we deliver over the next 18 months by far more than what's happened in the last 18 weeks."

He adds: "The last thing people want now is more political instability."

More from Hunt now, who says there are difficult decisions to be made on spending and taxation.

"Taxes are not going to come down by as much as people hoped, and some taxes will have to go up," he tells the programme.

"If we’re going to fund the NHS and our public services and keep taxes down we have to solve the growth paradox," he says.

"The way we went about it clearly wasn’t right and that’s why I’m sitting here now."

He says he needs to be "completely honest with the country" that we have some "very difficult decisions ahead."

"Difficult decisions on spending, which is not going to rise as much as people hope," he says.

"I’m going to be asking all government departments to find additional efficiency savings.

“Having run one of biggest government spending departments I know how difficult it is.”

Jeremy Hunt begins his interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme by paying tribute to the help offered by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng for people struggling with energy bills.

But, he admits, "there were two mistakes" made by the ex-chancellor.

"It was wrong" to cut the top rate of income tax for high earners, he says.

And "it was wrong to fly blind and announce those plans" without independent reassurance from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), he adds.

He says both are in the process of "being put right".

Image source, Reuters

The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is to appear on Radio 4's Today programme in the next few minutes.

You can listen here on BBC Sounds but we'll bring you the latest on what he says here on our live page.

Image source, EPA

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has just been speaking to BBC Breakfast.

The Labour MP said the prime minister has not "stabilised the ship" by sacking Kwasi Kwarteng because "everyone knows this was her mini-budget".

"She ran for months on cutting taxes for the wealthiest in our country," he says.

"This was a crisis made in No 10 by Liz Truss. It's unprecedented for a G7 nation to have a run on its currency, to have yields up, to have changes in fiscal policy overnight and to have four chancellors of the exchequer over the last four months."

Lammy was referring to yields on gilts, or government bonds, which have risen as a consequence of global factors - such as the war in Ukraine - and in response to September's mini-budget. The higher the yield, the higher the cost of government borrowing.

He described the PM as being in "absolute chaos", and says the country can't keep "playing pass the parcel" with who is running the Conservative Party and the country.

"She is the factor of instability in our economy," he said.

“When people are looking for credibility when they’re looking for and stability, they don’t get that from Liz Truss."

Asked whether new chancellor Jeremy Hunt can provide stability, Lammy said: "Jeremy Hunt in his campaign was calling for even deeper unfunded tax cuts."

A couple more lines now from that interview with Sir John Redwood, who told Radio 4's Today programme that he "really wants" this PM and chancellor to succeed, despite his advice to the PM that Kwasi Kwarteng should have remained in his position.

"My advice to [the PM] was to stick with her chancellor and bring out all aspects of her growth strategy, along with credible forecasts on the impact it was going to have on growth, tax revenues and on borrowing and make sure that the whole budget package added up," he said.

He said he offered the same advice to the new chancellor.

Sir John added that the British economy needed to be more self-reliant and self-sufficient when it comes to energy and food.

Ione Wells
Political Correspondent, BBC News

Conservative MP Sir John Redwood has told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that raising corporation tax is the “wrong decision.”

He said he would “urge” the prime minister and new chancellor to think again.

Sir John said there “would need to be some sensible reductions or efficiency improvements” in government spending.

And he added that his advice to Liz Truss had been to stick with her former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and make sure the budget “added up.”

More now on what prominent Tories have been saying about their prime minister over the last 24 hours.

• As we've been reporting, members of the Truss cabinet including Nadhim Zahawi, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Robert Buckland have rallied behind their leader, as has Deputy PM Therese Coffey, who said Truss was "right to act now to ensure our country's economic stability"
• Truss supporter Sir Christopher Chope called those plotting to remove her "hyenas", calling on the party to "calm down"
• Andrew Bridgen - who supported Truss's rival Rishi Sunak in the summer Tory leadership contest - said he thought there would "be a challenge to Truss in the next few weeks"
• Former Conservative leader William Hague said her premiership was "hanging by a thread"

We'll be keeping you updated today on the latest debate and discussion.

• Tory MPs turn on Liz Truss after turbulent day

As we've been reporting, the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to appear on BBC outlets soon. He's already been speaking to Sky News this morning.

Jeremy Hunt admitted there "were mistakes" in Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.

"It was a mistake when we're going to be asking for difficult decisions across the board on tax and spending to cut the rate of tax paid by the very wealthiest," he said.

He also said some taxes will go up, while government spending "will not rise as much as people would like to".

The new chancellor has a busy morning in store - he's appearing on BBC Radio 4's Today programme at 08:10 BST and on BBC Breakfast at 08:30.

Stick with us on this page as we keep you updated on what he says.

Image source, PA Media

So Jeremy Hunt is getting down to business as the new chancellor. Here are a few facts about the UK's new top finance minister:

• Brought up in Surrey and privately educated at Charterhouse School; later studied at the University of Oxford
• Married to wife Lucia, with whom he has three children
• Elected as MP in South West Surrey in 2005
• Appointed by then-PM David Cameron as culture secretary, an important role during the 2012 London Olympics
• Later made health secretary, holding that post for a record stint of nearly six years
• Supported Remain during the 2016 EU referendum
• Served as foreign secretary in Theresa May's government
• Finished second to Boris Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership election
• Unsuccessfully stood for Tory leader again in this year's contest, pledging to slash corporation tax - a hot-button issue during the premiership of Liz Truss
• Becomes chancellor after Kwasi Kwarteng is sacked by the PM

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Cabinet ministers lined up to support Liz Truss following yesterday’s announcements.

International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch says the prime minister “has her full support”. The former leadership contender tweeted, external that it was a “difficult day” but that Truss “is working flat out to get the country through these turbulent times".

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg says the PM, external has "acted decisively to provide the economic stability our country needs", and that he and his colleagues "must now get on and deliver the pro-growth reforms that will lay the foundations for our future prosperity".

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, now chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, tweeted, external: "It's time to get Britain moving. We are determined to grow the economy, eliminate the Covid backlog and protect people from Putin's energy warfare."

Deputy PM Therese Coffey, who's a close ally of Truss, adds, external: "The PM is right to act now to ensure our country's economic stability - key for families and businesses - and reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline, especially in light of the worsening global economic conditions with Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine."

Image source, EPA

It's been an eventful week in UK politics, so let's look back at the key events from the past five days.

Monday - Kwasi Kwarteng brought forward the date of his plan to balance the government's finances by several weeks to 31 October - but it failed to reassure markets.

Tuesday - The Bank of England took steps to try to calm markets as the pound fell and borrowing costs surged. It warned that, if market volatility continued, there would be a "material risk to UK financial stability".

Wednesday - Liz Truss came under pressure from a number of sides to reverse tax cut plans. During a grilling by opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions, the PM ruled out making cuts to public spending to help pay for them.

Thursday - There was speculation that the then-chancellor could possibly scrap major parts of his tax-cutting plan. But when pressed on whether there could be further U-turns, Kwarteng, who was in Washington for an IMF meeting, said he was "totally focused" on delivering his mini-budget, adding he was “not going anywhere”.

Friday - Kwarteng flew home early and was sacked by the PM. Truss has sought to calm the financial markets and restore confidence in her government by announcing a second U-turn on a major economic policy. She announced she’s abandoning Kwarteng's commitment to drop the planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25% - even though it was a central plank of her leadership campaign - saving the exchequer £18bn a year.

What next for doom-laden Tory MPs?published at 06:16 British Summer Time 15 October 2022

06:16 BST 15 October 2022

Chris Mason
Political editor

The mood among Conservative MPs is bleak, doom-laden, fatalistic. Most I speak to are convinced the last month and a bit means losing the next election is a near certainty. It's now about minimising their losses, they fear.

This pessimism - justified or otherwise - could help to shape the psychology of what happens next, how they act.

In the short term, their focus this weekend will be on the performance of the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt. Meanwhile, in the WhatsApp groups and on the phones, in the corridors and the bars, the chatter among Tory MPs about what to do next is everywhere.

For all the noise you'll have heard about, remember this: there are those who say, hang on a minute, Liz Truss must be given time. Ousting her would be a ridiculous. And a "coronation", as one described it - the party at Westminster stitching things up behind their chosen one - would be wrong, undemocratic and literally incredible.

Now, many still accept that, but are concluding absurdity might be better than the alternative.

Read Chris' blog in full here.

Saturday's headlines focus on the prime minister's bid to stay in office after asking her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to step aside and replacing him with Jeremy Hunt.

Let's take a look at some of the front pages.

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Read the full round-up here.

A dramatic 24 hours in British politics saw Kwasi Kwarteng sacked as chancellor and replaced by former health and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Meanwhile, Liz Truss has insisted she will stay on as PM after announcing another U-turn in her government's tax-cut plan.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage following Friday's dramatic events at Westminster.

Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng - replacing him with Jeremy Hunt - and ditched another part of her tax policy.

In a short press conference, lasting less than nine minutes, she delivered a statement aimed at restoring confidence in her government. Here's a quick recap of the main takeaways:

• Liz Truss announced a U-turn on the mini-budget - reversing the decision to scrap a rise in corporation tax. It means the tax will now rise from 19% to 25% - a policy that had previously been pledged by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Truss said the move would raise £18bn in taxes per year
• She conceded that parts of her mini-budget "went further and faster than markets were expecting"
• The PM was repeatedly challenged by journalists over why she should remain in post when she had sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor for implementing policies she had consistently called for
• In response, Truss said she was "absolutely determined" to see through her promise to deliver economic growth
• The PM said she was "incredibly sorry" to lose Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor but added that her newly-appointed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt "shares her vision"
• She confirmed he would deliver the medium-term fiscal plan - where the government sets out more detail on its tax and spending plans - at the end of the month on 31 October