Former Chancellor of the United Kingdom, Kwasi Kwarteng stated that, he blames recently resigned Prime Minister, Liz Truss for his dismissal and her resignation as well as the failure of their plan to help the economy. He stated that the PM was responsible for the fast pace at which the economy was being managed under their short- lived appointment.
Although he was responsible for the fiscal plan and he was not saying otherwise, he refused to apologize for what happened and instead rather explained that they could have had a more “measured approach”
Mr. Kwarteng mentioned that he asked the then PM to slow down after the market-crashing mini budget was announced but she said, “Well, I’ve only got two years” and Kwasi replied her by saying, “You will have two months if you carry on like this.”
He stated that Liz Truss was too forceful with the approach, and they tried to do everything too quickly even though their strategic goal was right.
He admitted that Truss’ approach and drive was 100% the right thing to do, but she needed a tactical plan to deliver what exactly she wanted.
The former chancellor did not cease to point fingers at his PM adding that Ms. Truss had a strong view of seizing the opportunity and “getting the ground running.” Kwarteng stated that they had both learned a lesson to have a tactical and measured approach next time.
Kwesi Kwarteng
“She’s very dynamic, very forceful. That’s a great strength.”
On the interview, he told the program that he told Liz to slow down after the mini budget, and in September 2022, he announced a stack of tax cutting policies that were unfunded, and that sent the market into chaos.
Liz Truss Ousted Kwasi Kwarteng
After the unfunded tax cutting policies affected the markets, Liz and Kwarteng intended to still stick to their plan. However, after a few U-Turns, Mr. Kwarteng was ousted by Liz Truss and he was replaced by Jeremy Hunt, current chancellor of the UK, who reversed all his plans.
Kwarteng mentioned that Truss was quite emotional when she was dismissing him and he does not remember whether she actually shed tears, but he knew that it was very difficult for her to dismiss him.
According to him, he found out that he was dismissed as chancellor on Twitter and despite this, he was still friends with the former PM although he thinks that “she genuinely thought that that was the right thing to buy her more time to set up her premiership on the right path.”
He said that he disagreed with Liz’s perspective of ousting him to buy herself more time because, he thought that if chancellors were sacked by their Prime Ministers for doing what the prime ministers campaigned on, that leaves the prime minister in a fragile situation. This became evident when Ms. Truss resigned days after Kwarteng was fired.
Kwesi Kwarteng
“A number of people have said to me, ‘I knew when she’d sack you that it was over’.”
At the end of the interview, he showered praises on the new PM of UK, Rishi Sunak, adding that, Sunak was a very credible prime minister and was very cool and considered.
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