Yet another excuse...
From blaming remainers, to Keir Starmer, if you thought you’d heard it all when it came to Tory excuses for just why the mini-budget was a disaster, think again. For now, the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, has come up with a new excuse.
He told GB News: “It was a very quick time that we did it. And so you’ve got to remember the context. I mean, what was extraordinary about that month, was that we had a new Government and also we had the sad passing of the Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
“So we had a nation in mourning. And then literally, four days after the funeral, we had the mini budget, it was high speed, high pressure environments. We could have, as David Cameron used to say, prepared the pitch a bit better.”
His remarks were seized on by critics, with Adam Bienkov tweeting: “Impressed that we’ve now reached the ‘blaming the Queen’ stage of the government’s clean-up operation on its mini budget.”
The chancellor’s comments come after a screeching U-turn on Monday morning saw the government scrap plans to abolish the 45p rate of income tax on earnings over £150,000.
Kwarteng also sparked fresh confusion over his next financial statement, saying: “It’s going to be 23 November,” – despite the Treasury briefing it has been brought forward to October.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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