Did Jeremy Hunt’s budget rescue the Tories – or is the game up?

In the shadow of the Truss debacle and with hard times ahead, the chancellor faced a politically impossible' job, according to a former Tory minister. But the party's morale is at rock bottom

Back when it all began on 22 June 2010, the then Conservative chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, delivered what he described as this unavoidable budget".

A package of savage spending cuts and painful tax rises lay at its heart. Today we have paid the debts of a failed past," Osborne said. And laid the foundations for a more prosperous future." The message was that the Tory-led coalition was riding to the rescue to put right the wrongs of 13 years of Labour government, and, after a short sharp shock of austerity, soon all would be a bed of economic roses.