Sunak delays UK budget, restores fracking ban

In his first full day as Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak yesterday delayed a crunch budget and rebuffed renewed demands for an early general election as he began trying to rebuild the Conservatives’ poll standing.Following the fiscal chaos seen under his short-lived predecessor, Liz Truss, Sunak’s government said it needed more time to present the full budget — deferring a Treasury statement due next Monday to mid-November.He also jettisoned a signature stance taken by Truss, which he also backed during their summer battle for the leadership. After taking office, she had made good on the promise to overturn a ban on fracking — drilling on land for natural gas — but Sunak said the ban would return.The U-turn was back in line with the 2019 manifesto that last brought his Conservative party to power. No company had yet come forward to take advantage of Truss’s offer, which risked arousing serious opposition from locals in prospective drilling sites.Following a meeting of his new Cabinet, Sunak engaged in his first parliamentary joust with opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is riding high in the polls and says the new Conservative leader lacks a democratic mandate.“The only time he ran in a competitive election he got trounced by the former prime minister, who herself got beaten by a lettuce,” Starmer said, challenging Sunak to face UK voters. After the scandal-tarred Boris Johnson announced in July that he was quitting, Truss beat Sunak in a vote by Tory members. But her right-wing economic programme, based on unfunded tax cuts, collapsed and she lasted only 49 days — with a lettuce lasting longer in one newspaper stunt.Sunak then beat off an audacious comeback bid by Johnson.“We will have to take difficult decisions to restore economic stability and confidence,” he told MPs, brushing off Starmer’s election call. “I will always protect the most vulnerable. We did it in Covid and we will do it again,” the former finance minister added.