Kwasi Kwarteng has blamed the “pressure” of the Queen’s death for mistakes in the mini-budget which has plunged the Tory party into crisis.
Conservatives will attempt to shift the focus away from the economy following the humiliation of two U-turns on income tax cuts for the highest earners and the date of a new fiscal plan.
Keynote speeches at the Tory conference in Birmingham on Tuesday by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will aim to set out the Government’s plans on immigration and commitment to support Ukraine.
Liz Truss will be keen to get the annual gathering back on track after she and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng abandoned their plan to scrap the 45 per cent rate for earnings over £150,000 in an astonishing U-turn to stave off a Tory revolt.
The Prime Minister admitted that it had not been an “easy” week but indicated she was sticking with the rest of the tax-cutting package.
Appearing on GB News, her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, seemingly used the death of the Queen as an excuse for the botched mini-budget.
“We had a nation in mourning and then, literally, four days after the funeral we had the mini-budget,” he said.
“It was a high speed, high pressure environment and we could, as David Cameron used to say, have prepared the pitch a bit better.”
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.
And he said the scrapping of the 45p tax rate for top earners has merely been “postponed”, before correcting himself to say: “We have decided not to proceed with it.”
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