The Minister of Finance of Great Britain, Kwasi Kwarteng, has finally been dismissed this Friday, as confirmed by the British media after the first rumors and information about it began to appear at noon. “I was told that Kwasi Kwarteng is being fired,” Steven Swinford, political editor of The Times, advanced on his Twitter account. “It’s not clear who will replace him,” he added.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has called a press conference for today, thus plans to reverse part of her controversial economic plan, which has generated an internal revolt in the Conservative party.
The finance minister cut short a trip to Washington to return to London early Friday, where he is expected to scrap parts of an economic program that has roiled financial markets.
Britain’s public debt continued to rise, adding to its partial recovery since the Truss government on Thursday began looking for ways to balance the books after its unfunded tax cuts crushed the value of British assets and sparked international censure.
Truss and Kwarteng have come under enormous pressure to back down on their tax plan as polls show support for the Conservative party has plunged and their colleagues have begun openly debating whether they should be replaced, just 37 days after they took office.
However, having caused markets to crash, they now risk bringing down the government if they fail to come up with a package of spending cuts and tax hikes that can appease investors and beat any parliamentary vote in the Commons. .
Mel Stride, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, Truss’s rival for the leadership, and head of the influential Parliamentary Treasury Committee, said the UK did not need another leadership change after having had four prime ministers in the last six years. “What we have to do, as a parliamentary party, is take a deep breath, stay calm and allow the chancellor and the prime minister to analyze the situation,” he told the BBC.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Kwarteng left a meeting of finance ministers in Washington to join his British colleagues who are re-examining his plan for tax cuts.
During his stay in the United States, the director of the International Monetary Fund spoke to him about the importance of “policy coherence”, highlighting the extent to which Britain’s reputation for good economic management and institutional stability has fallen.
At Westminster, Truss appeared to have reached an agreement with her cabinet ministers on how to preserve her growth momentum, while reassuring markets and working out what measures might be supported by members of Parliament.
