Nadhim Zahawi is the UK’s new Chancellor following a night of political chaos
(Picture: PA)The battered markets took stock this morning as they sifted through the wreckage of yesterday’s spectacular political pile up.
The FTSE-100 regained much of the ground it lost yesterday while the pound is up around half a cent against the dollar at the time of writing.
Make no mistake though, this is just a breather.
History tells us that good things rarely, if ever, follow from a public falling out between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his neighbour - and it always has been “his” neighbour - the First Lord of the Treasury.
And any standards this was a spectacular spat between the holders of the two most important posts in Government. Economic policy is in a mess the likes of which has been rarely seen before in peacetime.
So what are the top priorities for the new incumbent at Number 11, Nadhim Zahawi?
Cutting taxes? Controlling the deficit? Curbing inflation? Cushioning the most vulnerable from the worst effects of the cost of living crisis? Restring healthy growth? All of the above?
It is still hard to see any coherent strategy for the multi-fronted economic challenges facing the UK. That is largely the fault of the Prime Minister whose obsessive eagerness to please has made it next to impossible for any of his Chancellors to outline a plausible economic vision for the country.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak had been due to give a joint speech on the economy next week. Even if it had gone ahead you sense the body language would have been as awkward as on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s painful “ice cream walkabout” in 2005.
The best that can be hoped for now is that Zahawi uses his honeymoon, if he gets one, to map out with clarity and minimal interference from Number 10 the route for UK plc through the stormy waters ahead.
It is almost certainly a forlorn hope.
