Tories to Truss: Show Kwarteng the door or face the rage
3 Min Read
With the UK facing one of the worst hits of the global economic crisis, Truss' cabinet is proving to fail from merely just a month in, and the party is demanding a reshuffle not of members, but of the entire government.
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Kwasi Kwarteng and PM Liz Truss (The Telegraph)
The Tory party is pointing fingers at Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, for the lead-up to the emergency intervention in the UK financial market, following the crash of the pound this week. Tory members urged new PM Liz Truss to kick Kwarteng to the curb as they viewed her new government formation as a situation in dire straits.
Tory MP for North Dorset, Simon Hoare, tweeted: “In the words of Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday: ‘Today has been a very difficult day’. These are not circumstances beyond the control of govt/Treasury. They were authored there. This inept madness cannot go on.”
In light of the situation, Treasury financial secretary, Andrew Griffith, was assigned by both Truss and Kwarteng to comment on the situation on their behalf, as Griffith argued that “all major economies” were experiencing the same volatility as an outcome of the war in Ukraine. In the interview with Sky News, he stated that "every major economy is dealing with exactly these same issues. The Bank of England has made this timely intervention. What the chancellor and I are focused on is delivering that economic growth plan.”
The party, according to Tory chair Treasury select committee Mel Stride, should avoid at all costs a political disaster as they already tackle a financial one, adding: “The question is whether the plan is going to succeed. It’s had an adverse reaction from the markets". However, the party is divided between members of parliament who believe that removing Kwarteng and reconsidering the mini-budget set last Friday regarding a £45 billion ($48.49 billion) tax cut package, would bring the party back on its feet - the other half believes the damage is already done.
The tax cut witnessed the British pound plummet to its lowest rate against the US dollar since 1971. After a fall last Friday of 3.61%, the sterling extended its losses to more than 4%, reaching $1.0327, before rising back to $1.05.
One member said: “Kwasi will have to go. She won’t have any option. They are actually crashing the economy and she will need somebody to blame.”
Another added: “It’s extinction-level stuff. This is like 2008 but worse. We’re messing with the fundamental principle of providing a home for your family. That’s why it’s different: it’s real stuff. The public won’t forgive or forget.”
The party's former chancellor, Ken Clarke, labeled the Truss government to have initiated with a “catastrophic start”, and hoped that the mini-budget initiative would be “torn up”, but in a statement to Sky News, in his opinion, Kwarteng's resignation would not improve the crisis, adding: “We cannot have a different chancellor every other week.”
