Chancellor Drops Out Of Peston Interview As Speculation Mounts Over Cabinet Meeting

Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt holds his traditional red ministerial box as he leaves 11 Downing Street for the House of Commons to deliver the Budget in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

ITV political editor Robert Peston shared Wednesday that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had dropped out of a scheduled live interview ahead of a crucial afternoon Cabinet meeting being held by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Representatives for Hunt, who was on the press rounds that morning, informed the production team at ITV that the senior Tory would not be attending the evening’s Peston show.

The news comes as Foreign Secretary Sir David Cameron is cutting short his Albania trip, where he was set to discuss immigration policy, and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps postpones his planned flight to Estonia for a NATO meeting on Russia so that he too can be present.

The group are set to join a 4pm meeting at Downing Street, although the Foreign Office denied knowledge of what the Cabinet would discuss.

The sudden change in plans for senior officials, however, adds to the mounting speculation among journalistic hacks that Sunak might be gearing up to call a summer general election.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sunak dodged queries about a summer election, repeating his stance that an election would occur “in the second half of this year.”