KWASI KWARTENG has brought forward the date of his medium-term fiscal plan to October 31 in another humiliating U-turn for the new Tory leadership. 

The Chancellor had come under mounting pressure from MPs to publish his financial strategy and independent economic forecasts over the uncosted spending and tax-cutting pledges made in his “mini-Budget” last month. 

Mr Kwarteng had been resisting calls to publish the strategy and forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) before his planned update on November 23.

Labour shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq welcomed the decision to bring the fiscal statement forward, but added: “It is a very basic expectation of government to act with clarity on fiscal plans and to allow independent scrutiny. 

“The bar has fallen so far you can barely see it any more.

“This is a Tory crisis that has been made in Downing Street, and that is being paid for by working people. 

“It is now up to this Tory government to make it clear that they will reverse their kamikaze budget after the destruction it has caused, and set out a credible path for stabilising and growing our economy.”

Earlier this month PM Liz Truss was forced to scrap plans to abolish the 45p rate of income tax for Britain’s highest earners following cross-party outrage.

The PM is expected to hold policy lunches with back-bench Tory MPs this week in a bid to heal party divisions following the fall out of last month’s pound-crashing mini-Budget, which led to the Conservatives plummeting in the polls. 

But anger remains over the proposals, with Ms Truss now facing a fresh threat of rebellion over plans to increase benefit payments by less than the rate of inflation. 

Former chancellor Sajid Javid became the latest Tory to join growing calls yesterday for benefits to be raised in line with inflation. 

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “People are going through incredibly challenging times. We can all see that in our community. So I personally believe that benefits must stay in line with inflation.”

Tory peer Baroness Philippa Stroud also told the programme benefit payments must go up in line with inflation rather than earnings as “you don’t build growth on the backs of the poor.”