Britain's new finance minister said today that he would do whatever is necessary to steady the economy and give confidence to the financial markets after Britons voted to leave the European Union last month.
"Markets do need signals of reassurance, they need to know that we will do whatever is necessary to keep the economy on track," the new Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.
Hammond, 60, was appointed yesterday evening by Britain's new Prime MinisterTheresa May to run the world's fifth largest economy. He was previously Foreign Secretary.
Mr Hammond also said that Mark Carney was doing an excellent job at the Bank of England and that he would work with him to forge a plan for Britain's economy after the Brexit vote.
Several leading figures in the campaign to take Britain out of the European Union criticised Carney in the run up to last month's vote, objecting to his warnings that the economy could slip into recession if we voted to leave the bloc.
"I think he is doing an excellent job as governor of the Bank of England," Hammond, who campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU and who was named as the finance minister last night, said.
Asked if he would stick to his predecessor's plans to cut corporation tax, he said it was too soon to say.
"I'm not going to set out what my plans will be here on TV this morning," he said.
"I'm going to sit down with the key figures in the UK economy, like the governor of the Bank of England, look at the situation we face, look at the projections forward and make some carefully considered decisions over the summer."
