Rishi Sunak has again refused to commit to raising benefits and the state pension in line with inflation.
14.10.2022 - 15:49 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
As Prime Minister Liz Truss prepares to hold crisis talks over her controversial mini-budget, the future of the current government has become more uncertain.
While Ms Truss has to hold on until the beginning of next year to avoid becoming the shortest Prime Minister in history, Kwasi Kwarteng has already thwarted the dreaded record of being the shortest-serving Chancellor by eight days after being 'asked to stand aside'.
For now, the record of shortest-ever serving Chancellor belongs to Conservative MP Iain Macleod. Mr Macleod only served in office for 30 days before passing away in 1970.
Read more: Kwasi Kwarteng sacked as chancellor as Liz Truss to hold press conference today - LIVE updates
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Kwarteng wrote: "You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.
"When you asked me to serve as your Chancellor, I did so in the full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices. However, your vision of optimism, growth and change was right.
"As I have said many times in the past few weeks, following the status quo was simply not an option. For too long this country has been dogged by low growth rates and high taxation - that must still change if this country is to succeed.
"The economic environment has changed rapidly since we set out the Growth Plan on 23 September., In response, together with the Bank of England and excellent officials at the Treasury we have responded to those events, and I commend my officials for their dedication.
"It is important now as we move forward to emphasise your government's commitment to fiscal discipline. The Medium-Term Fiscal Plan is crucial to this end, and I look
Rishi Sunak has again refused to commit to raising benefits and the state pension in line with inflation.
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss will move to reshape her government’s economic policy after firing Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng and dropping key parts of her economic plan in response to market panic caused by the proposed "mini-budget." "After the fallout from the mini-budget, the Prime Minister needed to take drastic action to calm the markets and save her job," Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital. "Sacking the architect of the policy, while brutal, was the most logical way to restore confidence and give her some breathing space to regroup politically." "Once [Truss] reached that conclusion it was only a matter of time before she acted on it, as had she not, it would now be her head on the platter rather than his," Mendoza added. The British pound dropped sharply after the government announced Kwarteng’s "mini-budget," a series of cuts to taxes intended to spur growth and fight record inflation.The program proved contentious, and Kwarteng did not explain how the government planned to fund the cuts and offset the costs. "We need a new approach for a new era, focused on growth," Kwarteng told lawmakers in the House of Commons when he introduced the plan, which he argued would provide short-term help for homes and businesses in the face of spiking energy costs while trying to increase tax revenues in the coming years. FILE - Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng arrives in Downing Street in London, on Sept.
Liz Truss is to hold a press conference today after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor over the mini-budget disaster that tanked the pound.
Kwasi Kwarteng did not commit to nor rule out a U-turn on corporation tax, despite growing pressure to abandon even more parts of the recent mini-budget which caused market turmoil.
Ian Blackford has accused Liz Truss of "ignoring the damage and the chaos" of her mini-budget that plunged the markets into turmoil due to her unfunded tax cuts.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will announce the State Pension and benefits uprating next month following a scheduled annual review which takes place after the release of the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation figures in October.
It has been announced that the UK's economy shrank unexpectedly in August, which is continuing to spark fears of a recession.
A warning from Liz Truss has come back to haunt her after footage showing her saying a tax cuts bonanza would lead to "boom and bust" was unearthed.
HBO series Succession.On Monday (October 3), the Chancellor of the Exchequer said in a statement that “we get it and we have listened”, as he announced plans to scrap a controversial tax cut for those earning over £150,000 a year.His statement, however, was soon mocked on social media, with many comparing it to a speech given by Sarah Snook’s character Shiv Roy in Succession.In a season three episode of the hit show, Shiv used the phrase “we get it” while addressing Waystar Royco employees about a series of scandals that had hit the company.“As a #Succession obsessive, I’m really enjoying the tories leading with “We get it” on the 45p tax rate climb down. Is @lucyprebblish writing the script for our government now?” wrote one person.Another joked: “Does the UK government have the same PR advisers as Waystar Royco?”“Wasn’t ‘we get it’ literally the slogan Waystar went with in Succession after it came out that they’d done a bunch of shady things? And then ‘we hear you’ after their version of Siri was spying on people?” added another.As a #Succession obsessive, I'm really enjoying the tories leading with "We get it" on the 45p tax rate climb down.