Former Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng now says that he tried to outdo Truss in passing the controversial mini-budget.
Former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng first learned from a journalist’s tweet that he was about to be fired.
– I was in the car on my way to Downing Street when my special assistant showed me her phone and asked if I had seen this. I looked at it and read that Kwasi Kwarteng will be fired. I thought this was interesting.
Kwarteng told about it of the Talk TV channel (you switch to another service) in the interview. This is the first interview given by Kwarteng after his dismissal.
At the Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street, Kwarteng said that a moment later he heard the same message from the Prime Minister From Liz Truss. According to Kwarteng, his longtime friend and political ally Truss was “distressed and emotional” when he fired.
– I said this is crazy. Prime ministers don’t fire finance ministers, says Kwarteng.
Truss fired Kwarteng in mid-October to save his own political career. The background was a fierce dispute over the 45 billion pound mini-budget pushed by the Truss government, in which, among other things, tax breaks for the rich would have been offset with debt money.
Later, the criticized tax cuts were reversed, but the damage had already been done and the markets had gone haywire. Sacrificing the finance minister, who pushed the mini-budget, was not enough, but Trusski was pressured to resign less than a week later.
Kwarteng now says he still stands behind the Truss government’s economic policy goals.
Politics reporter for the British Broadcasting Company BBC David Wallace Lockhart points out in his analysis (you move to another service)that Kwarteng publicly promised more tax cuts in the near future after the announcement of the mini-budget.
However, in a recent interview, Kwarteng says that he thinks the government’s pace was too fast. He says he warned the prime minister about speed blindness after the announcement of the mini-budget.
– I told him [Trussille], that we should slow down. He replied that he only has two years, to which I said that at this rate you only have two months, says Kwarteng.
– And that’s unfortunately what happened.
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