Former British Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng has intoned a ‘mea culpa’ on Saturday for presenting a fiscal discipline plan in September that led to an alarming plunge in the pound and, in political terms, a sledgehammer that hastened the resignation of his superior and now former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Kwarteng has confessed, in an interview with the Financial Times, that his biggest regret was having been «too impatient» with this plan. «For a while we thought it was going to work but the people at the helm, including myself, blew it,» he has asserted. «We got carried away, myself included,» he added.
The Truss executive put £45 billion (about 52 billion euros) worth of tax cuts on the table that terrified the financial and political establishment. The former prime minister, in a matter of days, withdrew her star proposal of the program: a reduction from 45 to 40 percent of the income tax for the great fortunes.
Kwarteng was eventually dismissed from office after only 38 days, making him the second shortest-serving finance minister in office. Truss ended up resigning shortly thereafter.
Kwarteng’s successor, Jeremy Hunt, announced immediately after his appointment the almost total dismantling of the tax cuts and public spending plan.
«No government can control the markets, but all governments can provide certainty about the sustainability of public finances,» Hunt explained at the time.
