The United Kingdom’s (UK) Finance Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, has been fired by Liz Truss. The prime minister made the decision right when she was expected to abandon some of Kwarteng’s economic proposals to weather the country’s current political and market unrest.
Kwasi Kwarteng fired: Here’s what we know
As per BBC News, Truss, who’s only been in office for over a month, was expected to address the chaos on Friday, compelling Kwarteng to fly back to London from high-level meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.
The head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, had stressed the significance of “policy coherence” to Kwarteng during his time in the US, underscoring how far Britain’s reputation for prudent economic management and institutional stability had declined.
Truss’ government began looking for ways to balance the books after her unfunded tax cuts destroyed UK asset values and drew international criticism. British government bonds rose on Friday, adding to their partial recovery.
On 23 September 2022, Kwarteng unveiled a new fiscal strategy. It included Truss’s vision for sizable tax cuts and regulatory reform to shock the economy from years of slow growth.
However, the market’s reaction was so fierce that the Bank of England was forced to step in to stop pension funds from becoming embroiled in the confusion as borrowing and mortgage costs skyrocketed.
Since then, the pair has come under increasing pressure to change course. Polls revealed that support for their Conservative Party had plummeted, leading colleagues to discuss whether they should be replaced.
Truss now has the responsibility of recovering Britain’s financial state. If she cannot, she runs the risk of ruining the government.
British television news channels switched to live coverage of Kwarteng’s British Airways flight landing at Heathrow shortly before 11:00.
Kwarteng has served as Britain’s minister of finance for the shortest period since 1970. There was no immediate announcement of his successor, who will become Britain’s fourth finance minister this year.