Kwasi Kwarteng pays price for mini-budget chaos as he is sacked by Liz Truss
Photo by Victoria Jones/PA
By Gavin Cordon, PA Whitehall Editor
Kwasi Kwarteng has paid the price for the chaos unleashed by his mini-budget as he flew back to London to be dramatically sacked by Liz Truss.
The Chancellor cut short his attendance at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Washington to be told of his fate in a brief meeting with the Prime Minister.
In a letter to Ms Truss posted on social media, Mr Kwarteng said: “You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.”
He said her “vision of optimism, growth and change was right” and pledged to support her from the backbenches.
Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt is being lined up as Mr Kwarteng’s replacement, it has been reported.
If confirmed, it is likely to signal a major shift in policy direction.
A more centrist figure, Mr Hunt is unlikely to share Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss’s ideological free market commitment to tax cuts.
