Is Jeremy Hunt now in charge?

After trying to reassure the markets by junking almost everything Liz Truss announced in her mini-Budget, Jeremy Hunt briefed Tory MPs about his premiership – sorry, plans as chancellor. The mood of those emerging from the briefing was probably the best Tory MPs have been in since the government U-turned on the 45p rate at the start of the Tory conference. 'He was superb and emollient,' says one MP, while another describes the briefing as 'really good'. Both of these MPs, by the way, have told me in the past few days that their party is in the worst position it's ever been. That's not to say it was a good mood: it's just that they're at least relieved that the new chancellor appears sensible and in control.

The extent of his control is the main topic of discussion in the party: there is to be no sign of Truss in the Commons this afternoon, for instance. Penny Mordaunt is being sent to respond to Labour's urgent question, while Hunt will be back to give his full statement on the new measures that he's bringing forward from 31 October. However, he did tell Tory MPs that 'we will hear lots from the PM', something one backbencher describes as 'annoying'. He stuck to the government line that a lot of this is down to the ‘deteriorating global economic situation’. He also tried to suggest that Truss deserved credit for reversing the disastrous mini-Budget – even though it has been very clear that Hunt accepted the job on the basis he could do that, and the Prime Minister had little choice but to agree.

The Chancellor also told his colleagues that ‘voters look forward not back and as Conservatives we will have by far the best long-term plan for the economy’. MPs and the markets will now be looking to Hunt for stability and an indication of what the government is going to do next. Their attitude towards Truss is now largely an interest in whether she will be allowed to say anything of note at all, or whether she just exists not so much as the chairman to Hunt's chief executive (as the Chancellor's close ally Steve Brine suggested on Friday), but more as a house sitter in No. 10. Meanwhile everyone else will try to get on with the business of governing – or at least of stopping the mess getting bigger.