Kwarteng ‘rewriting history on Budget turmoil’

ALLIES of Liz Truss accused Kwasi Kwarteng of ‘rewriting history’ yesterday, after he claimed he warned her she was moving too far and too fast with her radical economic reforms.

The former chancellor said he had urged the then prime minister to ‘slow down’ in the wake of the mini-Budget in September that triggered her downfall.

Mr Kwarteng acknowledged that he bore ‘some responsibility’ for the timetable of the mini-Budget, which spooked the financial markets, but said Miss Truss was ‘very much of the view we needed to move things fast’.

‘Even after the mini-Budget we were going at breakneck speed,’ he told TalkTV on Thursday. ‘And I said, “You know, we should slow down”. And she said, “Well, I’ve only got two years” and I

‘He was fully signed up’

said, “You’ll have two months if you carry on like this”.’

But one ally of the former PM yesterday said Mr Kwarteng’s version of events ‘doesn’t stack up’. They said: ‘There is some serious re- writing of history going on here. He was fully signed up to the mini-Budget. After that there was no further action taken other than to reverse bits of it – there was nothing to slow down.’

Another ally pointed out that Mr Kwarteng brushed aside market concerns about the mini-Budget at the time, even giving a television interview two days after, boasting that there was ‘more to come’ on tax cuts. ‘If anyone was pushing to go faster, it was him,’ the source said.

Mr Kwarteng refused to apologise for the financial turmoil caused by the mini-Budget, but acknowledged ‘there was turbulence and I regret that’. He said the ‘strategic goal was right’, but ‘we should have had a much more measured approach’.