The chancellor holds the key to the crises facing Britain – so where is he?

From cost of living to nurses’ strikes over pay, the Treasury is at the heart of the biggest issues facing the public right now. But the man in No 11 appears to be in ‘submarine mode’, writes Marie Le Conte

Britain needs and deserves a chancellor who has a plan, and isn’t afraid to show it (REUTERS)

The past 12 months have been eventful for many people in Westminster, but few could claim to compete with the rollercoaster Jeremy Hunt has been on.

This time last year, he was chair of the health select committee, having been forced away from the frontbench by Boris Johnson’s premiership. A few months later, as his great foe was finally toppled, he decided to run for the leadership of his party again. He announced Esther McVey as his running mate, to widespread puzzlement, and was out of the race before it’d even really started.

In the months that followed, he began settling into what looked like the end of his parliamentary career. He posted wholesome pictures of himself with his dog on Twitter, tried his hand at radio presenting, and ran the London Marathon. He backed Sunak over the summer and Sunak lost and that was that. Well, for a couple of weeks at least. Truss came in and self-combusted within weeks, and Hunt was brought out of early retirement for one last job. His appointment failed to save the prime minister; as she left No 10, he stayed at No 11.

Jeremy Hunt has now been Rishi Sunak’s chancellor for three months, and it’s not entirely clear what he’s doing. That’s a problem.

The relationship between the prime minister and the chancellor arguably is the most important one in British politics. David Cameron and George Osborne marched in lockstep and, for a while, they were unassailable. Theresa May and Philip Hammond’s marriage was one of convenience, and its strains weakened an already frail prime minister even further.

Boris Johnson appointed Rishi Sunak because he wanted the Treasury turned into a patsy run from No 10, and we all know who had the last laugh. What we don’t know, however, is what is going on right now. Jeremy Hunt was all-powerful in the Truss administration – is that still the case? Does he get along with Sunak? Who’s wearing the trousers?

There were whispers that Hunt had got too big for his boots in November, as the former Remainer was accused of being behind government briefings hinting towards a closer relationship with the European Union. The speculation was promptly shut down by Brexiteer Sunak. Since then, there hasn’t been much else to go on.

Instead, Hunt has increasingly been painted as a cross between a submarine and the Big Bad Wolf. As multiple government departments try to deal with strikes in their sectors, Hunt keeps his head down but refuses to open the drawstrings of the public purse. When he does emerge, it is by way of a viral video to try to explain inflation using coffee cups.

According to a Times story from earlier this month, “the chancellor is seen as the stumbling block in talks with the unions over disputes that have brought Britain grinding to a halt”. Surely, this is untenable? In politics as in life, making tough decisions is sometimes unavoidable but it always requires a clear explanation.

If Hunt does not believe that, say, nurses deserve a pay rise, he should explain why that is the case. Of course, it is possible that going public could cause him some trouble. As recently as last year, he argued the NHS needed “more than warm words” to address its workforce crisis. Ironically, he isn’t even offering those now he’s back in government.

Sometimes that is the problem with being someone who has been around for this long. You may be seen as a reliable pair of hands, but you come with an amount of baggage that will almost certainly trip you up eventually.

Relatedly, his near decade in cabinet and several attempts at running for the leadership mean that it is near impossible for him to rebrand himself. A new chancellor can usually expect to outline their vision and introduce themselves to the world in big magazine profiles and soft-focus television interviews, but that isn’t a luxury he was afforded. Everyone knows who Jeremy Hunt is already; there’s no point.

Though he probably took comfort in the relative lack of scrutiny at the start, it isn’t clear that it will benefit him in the long run. It is likely that Sunak will undergo at least one reshuffle before the next election, and it currently isn’t obvious why Hunt should stay in place: not least when the health system isn’t working, strikes are disrupting every aspect of life in Britain, and the cost of living crisis is still biting for millions. The Treasury should, and must, be at the heart of these issues – for they are the biggest crises the public face right now.

Then again, perhaps this is all part of the plan – by doggedly refusing to stick his head above the parapet, Hunt may be hoping to survive whatever comes next. A prime minister will always prefer a quiet chancellor to an unruly one, and any move by Hunt may just result in angering No 10.

Britain needs and deserves a chancellor who has a plan, and isn’t afraid to show it. There is no reason why Hunt cannot be that person, but now is the time for him to step up.