WATCH: Truss’ credibility and authority “completely shot”, McFadden says

Pat McFadden has argued that Liz Truss’ credibility and authority are “completely shot” after it was announced that almost all the tax cuts set out in the government’s mini-Budget will be scrapped.

Jeremy Hunt confirmed this morning that the government will reverse “almost all the tax measures” unveiled in Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal statement last month.

The new Chancellor also warned that there would be “difficult decisions” to be made on tax and spending, that government departments would “redouble their efforts to find savings” and that “some areas of spending will need to be cut”.

Interviewed on BBC News following Hunt’s statement, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury said: “Who caused the chaos? You can’t simply give us a fourth Tory Chancellor in four months and say: “This guy is the antidote to what all the others did.” It is not credible as a proposition.”

He continued: “Let me put this in terms of where the Prime Minister is. At the next election, which policy does she support? The one that she believes in, that she won the Conservative party leadership election on, or the one that is dependent on torching that all the time.

“What will she believe? What will she support? The fact that we can’t answer that shows how completely untenable her position now is.”

On whether he would prefer Truss to remain as Prime Minister for the next election, McFadden said: “I believe in the old football analogy: you can only play the team in front of you. It’s up to the Tory Party who they have. But they’ve now got a Prime Minister whose credibility and authority are completely shot.”

Kwarteng was sacked as Chancellor on Friday amid the ongoing economic turmoil that has followed the mini-Budget, which set out a series of unfunded tax cuts. The former Chancellor faced criticism for not providing an OBR analysis of the government’s plans alongside his statement.

Following the announcement of the mini-Budget, the pound crashed to its lowest level to date against the dollar, and government borrowing costs soared. The Bank of England announced last week that it was taking emergency action for a third time since Kwarteng’s statement in an attempt to calm the markets.

Labour has been granted an urgent question in parliament today, which calls on the Prime Minister to make a statement on the replacement of the Chancellor during the “current economic situation”.

A Labour spokesperson said: “With the Chancellor junking the majority of its kamikaze budget today, the Prime Minister should have come to the House to make a statement.

“The damage is done. Mortgages are rising and the cost-of-living crisis is out of control. After days of the [Prime Minister] attempting to dodge the questions the public has, Labour has now had to force her to come to parliament. If she had a shred of authority left she would turn up.”

The government had already been forced to U-turn on significant parts of the statement, including proposals to abolish the top rate of income tax and scrap a planned rise in corporation tax.

Announcing the U-turn on corporation tax on Friday, the Prime Minister said: “It is clear that parts of our mini-Budget went further and faster than markets were expecting. So the way we are delivering our mission right now has to change. We need to act now to reassure the markets of our fiscal discipline.”