Chris Green MP: Radical plans from our new PM

The death of Her Majesty the Queen and funeral arrangements meant that the anticipated flurry of political activity had to be put on hold.

Despite this and within weeks of Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister, her new Chancellor delivered the most dramatic Budget for many years.

Officially, it was not a Budget but to go through the administrative procedure required by the Office of Budget Responsibility would have required a further 10 week delay.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor knew that they had to act decisively and could not afford more delays after Boris Johnson had set the leadership race to last for such a long time.

The context for such an impactful Budget was always known to be as a result of the devastating impact that Covid and the associated lockdown had upon the economy as well as the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Shutting down much of the complex and interrelated parts of the global economy triggered a massive continent-spanning recession and we are still recovering from it.

On top of that, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy prices to spike and further damaged the world economy.

The last 12 years have seen the Government work to create a more resilient economy which is why our economy has not been plunged into a deep recession.

Whilst we are in a difficult position, we know that the Covid disease and the Russian invasion were not failings related to the British economy.

Our current challenges are not because the Government has failed but because of international crisis.

Our economy has not been growing as strongly as we would have liked in recent years but it is resilient.

Liz Truss, as Prime Minister, intends to keep its integrity but to add more growth to it.

Fundamentally, the growth of the economy is not an end in itself but is a means to an end.

Growth creates jobs. Growth gives job security and enables pay rises. Growth pays for our public services from policing to education.

Ultimately, we all want the next generation to have a better quality of life than we have had.

The first thing that the Budget had to deliver was more security for families and businesses over what is still going to be a tough winter.

Most households will save over a thousand pounds on their energy bills and most businesses will have them almost halved.

Having spent over £400 billion to deal with Covid, the Government is now spending tens of billions more to get us through the winter.

The second purpose of the Budget was to deliver growth but it had to have the secure foundation of avoiding a bad recession so that we can spring back quickly.

The Prime Minister has been radical and will now have to deliver.