Health and teaching unions aghast at Jeremy Hunt’s new era of Tory austerity

The chancellor sparked alarm among trade union leaders by promising very difficult decisions' for government budgets

Health chiefs, public sector unions and teaching leaders expressed horror on Saturday after the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, appeared to usher in a fresh era of austerity, and the threat of more misery for cash-strapped hospitals and schools.

In his first interviews since dramatically replacing Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, Hunt provoked widespread alarm by promising very difficult decisions" for government budgets.