Truss backs Kwarteng even after humiliating U-turn on U.K. tax cut
BNN Bloomberg
Liz Truss is standing by her Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng after the threat of a rebellion in the ruling party forced them into a humiliating reversal on a plan to cut taxes for the top earners in the U.K.
Kwarteng announced the decision in a tweet early Monday, saying “we get it, and we have listened.” He said the plan announced just 10 days ago to scrap the 45 per cent rate of income tax had become a “distraction.”
The pound jumped as much as 1 per cent before giving up some of those gains, trading 0.4 per cent higher against the dollar at 12:05 p.m. in London.
The U-turn is a major embarrassment for Truss and Kwarteng. They’ve spent days defending the chancellor’s Sept. 23 fiscal statement, with Truss saying on Sunday that she was committed to the package. Kwarteng was due to say his party should “stay the course” and that the plan was “the right one” in his speech to the Tory Party’s annual conference in Birmingham on Monday.
