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Kwarteng told Truss to ‘slow down’ radical measures after mini-budget | Kwarteng told Truss to ‘slow down’ radical measures after mini-budget |
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Former chancellor says he warned Truss she would be out in two months if she ‘carried on like this’ | Former chancellor says he warned Truss she would be out in two months if she ‘carried on like this’ |
Kwasi Kwarteng has revealed he told Liz Truss to “slow down” and warned her she would “have two months” if she continued at the same rate with her radical mini-budget measures. | |
Kwarteng was sacked as chancellor last month by the then-prime minister after less than six weeks in the job, after the government’s £45bn tax cuts triggered economic turmoil, with government borrowing costs soaring and the pound plummeting to a 37-year low. | |
Truss subsequently resigned after 45 days in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history. | |
In his first interview since he left office, Kwarteng told TalkTV: “After the mini-budget we were going at breakneck speed and I said, you know, we should slow down, slow down. | |
“She said, ‘Well, I’ve only got two years’ and I said, ‘You will have two months if you carry on like this’. And that is, I’m afraid, what happened.” | “She said, ‘Well, I’ve only got two years’ and I said, ‘You will have two months if you carry on like this’. And that is, I’m afraid, what happened.” |
He added: “I think the prime minister was very much of the view that we needed to move things fast. But I think it was too quick.” | |
Kwarteng was Britain’s shortest serving chancellor since 1970 and was replaced by Jeremy Hunt. | |
He said Truss was “very emotional” when she sacked him as chancellor and added he first learned of his firing via a tweet as he travelled to a meeting in Downing Street. | |
Mr Kwarteng told TalkTV: “I can’t remember whether she was actually shedding tears but she was very emotional and it was a difficult thing to do. | |
“I think she genuinely thought that that was the right thing to buy her more time to set her premiership on the right path. | “I think she genuinely thought that that was the right thing to buy her more time to set her premiership on the right path. |
“I disagreed, obviously. I thought that if chancellors are sacked by the prime minister for doing what the prime minister campaigned on, that leaves the prime minister in a very weak position.” | “I disagreed, obviously. I thought that if chancellors are sacked by the prime minister for doing what the prime minister campaigned on, that leaves the prime minister in a very weak position.” |
On his disastrous mini-budget, Kwarteng acknowledged “there was turbulence and I regret that”. | |
He said: “I do feel sorry actually for the people who are going through this difficult time in terms of remortgaging. | |
“I think that it is a really stressful thing to do.” | |
The MP for Spelthorne, Surrey, added: “I’m responsible. I’m not gonna wash my hands [of] it. | |
“I was chancellor of the exchequer. I was also part of the top team. But looking back I think we could have had a much more measured approach.” |