New British chancellor admits Truss tax cut 'mistakes', warns of 'difficult' choices

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Newly-appointed British finance minister Jeremy Hunt admitted Saturday that Prime Minister Liz Truss made some "mistakes" in her recent budget calling for unfunded tax cuts amid rising inflation.

"It was a mistake when we were 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," Hunt told Sky News in an interview.

"It was a mistake to fly blind and to do these forecasts without giving people the confidence of the Office for Budget Responsibility saying that the sums add up. The prime minister recognized that. That's why I'm here," Hunt said in his first interview since replacing Kwasi Kwarteng as the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday in an unexpected move.

On Friday, Truss announced a reversal on unfunded business tax cuts originally laid out in her "mini-budget."

Prior to Friday's about-face, Truss and her government had faced mounting criticism domestically and overseas for promising the most significant tax cuts in Britain since the 1970s while inflation was raging in the country and around the world.

The recent developments had opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer calling the situation surrounding Truss and her government "grotesque chaos" on Saturday.

Starmer also criticized the removal of Kwarteng, who ended up becoming the second-shortest-serving post-war Chancellor in British history.

Starmer, who continues to call for a general election, pointed to the "grotesque chaos of a Tory prime minister handing out redundancy notices to her own chancellor," accusing her of putting her party ahead of the country.

Kwarteng's resignation letter said for too long Britain has been "dogged by low growth rates and high taxation -- that must change if the country is to succeed."

Hunt, a former foreign secretary who twice unsuccessfully ran for the Conservative Party leadership, said on Saturday that tax cuts proposed by Truss won't happen as quickly.

"We won't have the speed of tax cuts we were hoping for and some taxes will go up," he said.

Truss had said as recently as Wednesday that her government would press on and that she was not planning to cut public spending to pay for one of the biggest tax cuts in more than 40 years.

Last week Truss announced a new round of auctions for the right to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea as one of multiple strategies meant to ensure adequate supplies at home.