This Morning fans left baffled as show cut short for budget coverage-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

Holly and Phil cut to the news for coverage of the Autumn budget (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)

This Morning fans were left a little baffled as the show was cut short today for ITV’s news coverage of the Autumn budget.

Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who normally present the ITV daytime show between 10am and 12.30pm, ended early shortly after 11am, with Loose Women not set to begin until 80 minutes later, at 12.45pm.

The new budget set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt today comes after the  (rather swift) exit of Liz Truss as Prime Minister, with Rishi Sunak taking over the reins – and with a new PM came his new Cabinet.

Mr Hunt replaced Kwasi Kwarteng, Truss’ first Chancellor, in what was widely viewed as a bid to calm the markets following the disastrous mini-budget introduction and to return to economic stability.

During Mr Hunt’s budget, which was expected to be the toughest one in decades, he laid out a number of economic changes he is planning to tackle the huge debt the country is currently in.

He tore down almost all of the policies of his predecessor, Mr Kwarteng, saying electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2025 and announcing that Mr Kwarteng’s stamp duty tax cut will be reversed in 2025.

Ahead of the budget coverage, This Morning viewers weren’t too keen on the show being cut short, with many baffled over why.

‘Thought something bad had happened when they cut to the news,’ one person wrote.

Someone else penned: ‘Hands up if you’d rather have another hour or so of #ThisMorning than news coverage of the Chancellor’s statement…’

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One person fumed: ‘So they’ve binned #ThisMorning for the #AutumnBudget why not keep news on news channels, there’s enough of them.’

Ahead of the switch to the budget, Phil explained: ‘We are finishing the show early today, to cross live to Julie Etchingham in the ITV news room as they bring you coverage of that Autumn budget.’

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.

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