Jeremy Hunt appointed Britain's new Treasury chief

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) - Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss appointed Jeremy Hunt to be the country's new Chancellor of the Exchequer in an attempt on Friday to calm markets and unify her fractured party.

Hunt is seen as a leading figure of the moderate wing of the ruling center-right Conservative Party, while Truss was favored by the right-wing during her candidacy for party chief and prime minister.

In a bid to unleash Britain's potential, Truss had wanted to tear up economic orthodoxy. During her bid to become leader, she attacked even those in her own party whose views were, in her view, insufficiently radical.

She has been forced to retreat, however, sacking her previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after market turmoil triggered by their mini-budget that included massive, unfunded tax cuts.

Truss herself is under intense pressure from within her party after a disastrous start to her time in office -- just over a month, 10 days of which politics was suspended to mourn for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Hunt, 55, was a businessman before entering parliament. Representing South West Surrey since 2005, he was foreign secretary in 2018-2019, health secretary in 2012-2018, and culture secretary in 2010-2012.

In 2019, he came second to Boris Johnson in the leadership election and ran again in 2022 but finished near the end of the pack.

Truss is due to speak later on Friday at a press conference, where she is expected to reverse large swathes of the mini-budget that she and her previous chancellor introduced, in an attempt to restore both Britain's financial stability and her grip on power.