In a pointed reference to market demand for forecasts for the public finances from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which were not released by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor, when he announced plans to slash taxes last week, Mr Bailey said: “I welcome the Government’s commitment to sustainable economic growth, and to the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility in its assessment of prospects for the economy and public finances.”
Minutes before Mr Bailey issued his statement, the Treasury announced that there would be a “medium-term fiscal plan” set out on November 23, including details of how the national debt burden will ease, along with forecasts for the public finances from the OBR.
A Treasury spokesman said: “The Fiscal Plan will set out further details on the Government’s fiscal rules, including ensuring that debt falls as a share of GDP in the medium-term.”
However, Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said that Mr Bailey and Mr Kwarteng had done “the bare minimum” to try to stem the slide in the pound and rising cost of public borrowing.
“It is possible that this is enough to stop the rot. But… the markets may well need more reassurance and some actual action.”
Mr Kwarteng is understood to have spoken with Mr Bailey yesterday as they worked out how to respond to market movements.
There are signs that Ms Truss’s senior team is pulling back on plans to shake up the Bank, after a summer in which she vowed to rip up its mandate and hinted at criticism of its recent performance.
The Telegraph can reveal that plans to rewrite the Bank’s mandate have been pushed back to Spring 2023 at the earliest as both institutions battle inflation and market scepticism together.
In Sir Keir’s keynote speech to his party conference in Liverpool, he will on Tuesday declare Labour as the party of fiscal responsibility in contrast to the Tories whom he will blame for the turmoil on the markets.
In a direct echo of Tony Blair, the Labour leader will insist his party is once again the “political wing of the British people” – a phrase used in the election-winning manifesto of 1997.
Sir Keir will tell delegates that two years after the end of the disastrous Corbyn years, Labour is now back at the “centre ground” of British politics and will “fight the Tories on economic growth”.
He will unveil plans to turn the UK into a “growth superpower” by working in close partnership with business.
Sir Keir will attempt to draw a contrast between Labour’s plan for growth and the Tories’ mini-Budget.
He will say it is the Labour Party that now stands for “sound money” and will recommit Labour to an Office for Value for Money to make sure taxpayers’ money is spent in the national interest – a plan designed to reassure a sceptical public that Labour can be trusted with their money.
