New UK finance minister pledges to grow economy

Reuters, London

Britain's new finance minister Nadhim Zahawi pledged on Wednesday to rebuild and grow the struggling economy and said he would look at all options to do that, including possible tax cuts.

Zahawi, who moved from the education ministry to the Treasury on Tuesday after the resignation of Rishi Sunak in protest against embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said  "nothing is off the table".

But he also faced questions in his first media interviews in the job about whether he would even have a chance to steer the economy out of its looming slowdown, given Johnson's weakened grip on power.