Kwasi Kwarteng has insisted that he and Liz Truss will still be in their jobs in a month’s time.
The embattled chancellor was forced to deny he was facing the axe barely a month after taking on their job.
He is under huge pressure following the economic turmoil which followed last month’s mini-budget, which promised £45 billion-worth of unfunded tax cuts.
Kwarteng has already U-turned on his plan to abolish the 45p tax rate paid by the highest earners.
And there is intense speculation that he will also be forced to climb down over corporation tax, which he pledged to keep at 19p in the pound rather than put it up to 25p.
Asked directly if he was planning to dump some of the measures in the mini-budget in an attempt to calm the markets, Kwarteng - who is in Washington at a meeting of finance ministers - refused to rule it out.
He said: “Our position hasn’t changed. I will come up with the medium term fiscal plan on October 31 as I said earlier in the week, and there will be more detail then.”
Asked specifically if he will U-turn on increasing corporation tax, he said: “What I’m totally focused on is on delivering on the mini-budget, making sure we get growth back into our economy.”
Both Kwarteng and Truss are under intense pressure to turn around the economy as well as the Conservatives’ fortunes, with Tory MPs plotting to remove the prime minister.
She faced a bruising meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers last night, at which she faced a barrage of hostile questions.
One MP told HuffPost UK: “She was crap and the atmosphere was pretty flat in the room. Even the whips couldn’t be bothered getting people to ask supportive questions.”
But asked if he and the PM will still be in their jobs this time next month, Kwarteng said: “Absolutely, 100 per cent. I’m not going anywhere.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Today’s mess shows the utter chaos this government is in. This is a crisis made in Downing Street and working people are paying the price.
“The Tories cannot allow the chaos caused by their mini-budget to continue any longer.”