“It was a huge important issue, we’re still paying the price”.
Former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng doesn’t like being reminded about his disastrous mini-budget which crashed the economy and sent mortgage bills soaring, as the Tories continue to trail the Labour Party in the polls.
Kwarteng was embroiled in a fierce clash with the MP for Hull West and Hessle, Emma Hardy on Politics Live as his record as chancellor was raised, and` he looked incredibly frustrated at his past record being brought up.
With the general election expected to take place later this year, the Tories’ economic record has featured heavily, with inequality and levels of poverty rising and the UK entering recession last month.
Damning analysis from the IFS has highlighted how the Tories will preside over the first parliament in modern history to see a fall in living standards, as real disposable income is set to drop by 0.9 percent.
Appearing on Politics Live, Kwarteng began talking about his time as chancellor and he was interested in highlighting the difficult choices he had to make, before Hardy reminded him about his policies crashing the economy.
A rather frustrated Kwarteng replied: “You can go on about that… I’ve said a million times, if you’re going to talk about public spending tax cuts, you’ve got to show some restraint.
“You can go on and on and on about what happened”, to which Hardy replied: “It was a huge important issue, we’re still paying the price”.
Kwarteng went on to add: “I’m not that interested in the past.”
Yet it was his and Liz Truss’ disastrous economic policies, which included unfunded tax cuts that benefited the well-off, which sent the pound crashing and added hundreds to people’s mortgage bills, that people are still paying the price for.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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