Chancellor Jeremy Hunt rips up Kwasi Kwarteng's Mini Budget

U-turn without precedent

New Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will be ripping up the bulk of his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s package of tax cuts in an effort to stabilise markets, he said in an emergency statement published today (17 October).

Hunt, appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday (14 October) following Kwarteng's sacking, will be reversing nearly all the tax measures introduced in the government's ‘Growth Plan' on 23 September that have not been legislated for in parliament.  The basic rate of income tax will remain at 20% indefinitely, reversing Kwarteng's plan to cut the basic rate of income tax to 19% from April 2023 and saving public finances up to £6bn a year. The 1.25 percentage points increase to the dividend tax, valued at £1bn a year, which took effect in April 2022, will now remain in place. Ch...