What is Jeremy Hunt doing?

Is his goal to grab headlines? His Labor rival Rachel Reeves On the night of her important and detailed speech on the economy?

Almost certain.

Is he also planning to tease Labor MPs about the October election, when he and the Prime Minister are actually planning for November?

Probably.

Is he trying to calm Tory MPs’ concerns about an election in June or July? After Rishi Sunak was ruled out on May 2?

no doubt.

Does he hope to reassure backbenchers that he and the Prime Minister have a solid economic strategy – “stick to the plan” – including falling inflation and lower interest rates?

certainly.

Politics Live: Prime Minister appears to have made a gaffe as election could go ahead

It was no accident that Mr Hunt offered the tantalizing words “if there was a general election in October” to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. This couldn’t have been a slip of the tongue.

The 14 noble MPs on the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee include some wise and experienced old-timers: a former chancellor and two former Treasury officials.

Well, Norman Lamont’s record as Prime Minister under John Major from 1990 to 1993 was hardly a complete triumph. Remember Black Wednesday?

But Terry Burns was the outstanding chief economic adviser and permanent secretary to the Treasury in the early years of Thatcher, Major and Blair and Brown.

And Andrew Turnbull, the official’s official, was also the permanent secretary at the Treasury under Mr Brown and then cabinet secretary under Sir Tony.

So Mr. Hunter knew exactly what he was doing.

As well as the soap opera of Tory plotting against the Prime Minister, the date of the general election is the talk of all MPs and the ongoing guessing game in Parliament.

On March 7, a day after his budget frustrated Tory backbenchers, the chancellor told Sky News’ Kay Burley that the “working assumption” was that the election would be held in the autumn.

Previously, the Prime Minister said his “working assumption” was that this would happen in the second half of the year.

Now the Prime Minister and Chancellor appear to be narrowing the scope.

But if it’s October, when exactly is it?

Mr Hunt told nobles that the October election would make the spending review “very, very stressful”.

Coupled with the expectation that he will deliver a pre-election tax cuts budget in September – fulfilling Mr Sunak’s pre-election promise to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p – it points to the potential for the second half of the month. Condition.

Forget Thursday, October 31st. Which Prime Minister would risk a “Halloween Nightmare” to make headlines? Surely not even the accident-prone Mr Sunak?

We can also rule out the possibility of last Thursday’s (October 24) meeting clashing with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa, which required the attendance of both King Charles and the then Prime Minister.

Actually, it ends on October 10th or 17th. The current betting at Westminster is that if it is October, then the 17th is the most advantageous.

Mr Hunter must have known this for some time. Even if his main motivation on the Lords committee was indeed to wrest the evening headlines from Ms Reeves.