Britain’s budget blunderer bites back

Britain’s unpopular new Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng has gone on the offensive to calm Conservative Party and financial market nerves over his taxcutting budget and insists he has a “credible” plan to return Britain to economic prosperity.

Mr Kwarteng has pledged to take “responsible decisions” to cut debt and says the new Truss government is “committed to fiscal sustainability”.

In a speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mr Kwarteng (pictured) will also set out his vision for the country, arguing that his “new economic deal” will build the foundations for a more prosperous country with “more jobs, higher pay and more money for public services”.

His appearance at the conference will contain no new policy announcements and instead try to explain the rationale behind the government’s economic plans. But his speech is likely to be seized upon by Tory critics as further evidence the government is preparing significant public spending cuts to fund his budget’s £45bn ($78bn) in tax cuts.

The Chancellor will say he will pursue an “iron-clad commitment to fiscal discipline”.

Ministers have refused to rule out real-term cuts in public benefits to help reduce expenditure – despite the budget reducing taxes for the rich.

The Chancellor is due to set out how the government will begin reducing Britain’s debtto-GDP ratio in a statement on November 23.

In the coming weeks, government departments will also set out changes to business regulation, planning reform and immigration in an effort to boost economic growth. Mr Kwarteng will argue that without such fundamental reforms, Britain will be on a path of “slow, managed decline”.

“I refuse to accept that it is somehow Britain’s destiny to fall into middle income status,” he will say. “Or that the tax burden reaching a 70-yearhigh is somehow inevitable. It isn’t, and shouldn’t be. We needed a new approach.”