Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to cut US visit short to deliver yet another major Tory U-turn

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    The Chancellor flew to Washington for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting and was expected to address journalists on Friday but instead conducted the briefing on Thursday night.

    Mr Kwarteng then announced that he would be flying back home early, where it is expected that he will be presented with a re-hashed version of his tumultuous mini budget.

    The economic policy not only gained criticism from the IMF, financial experts, and the British public, but also from inside the Tory Party which presented Truss with a dilemma.

     

    Last month, the IMF decided to issue a rare statement to the Government, asking the Prime Minister to “re-evaluate” the fiscal package and to work with the Bank of England.

    The Central Bank had to take action in an attempt to stabilise the markets following the turmoil of the announcement of the mini-budget which spooked investors.

    Despite many calling Kwarteng’s suitability for the role into question given that his policies are being scrapped only weeks into the role, he insisted: “I am not going anywhere.”

    He also said that his “total focus is on delivering on the mini budget” as people began to suspect a U-turn was in the works as Truss is expected to raise corporation tax.

    It has also become increasingly apparent that those aside from the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were aware of the “inevitable” U-turn before the pair gave in.

    Tory MPs spoke to the MP about the inescapability of a U-turn, saying: “There is no question in my mind, they’ll have to junk loads of this stuff and U-turn.”

    Former Conservative Chancellor George Osbourne tweeted: “Given the pain being caused on the real economy by the financial turbulence, it’s not clear why it is in anyone’s interest to wait 18 more days before the inevitable U-turn on the mini budget.”

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    Mr Kwarteng was asked by an astute journalist about how the markets “have improved today because they think you’re about to do a U-turn on corporation tax”, to which the Chancellor said, “let’s see”.

    He added that it is a “great idea” and imperative that corporation tax remains “competitive” but refused to rule out raising its current 19 percent rate.

    The news comes only hours after it was revealed by the Chancellor that the position of both he and the Prime Minister on the mini budget “hasn’t changed”.



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