According to information made public today, the Bank of England was kept in the dark about the details of the massive “mini-Budget” that caused the markets to crash.
Deputy governor Jon Cunliffe said that, unlike to custom, authorities were not “completely told” in advance on the £45 billion in tax cuts.
When testifying before the Treasury Select Committee, Sir Jon said that if the Bank had known, it could have provided advice on the effect on traders.
On September 23, Kwasi Kwarteng announced an unusual “growth plan” that caused the pound to plummet and skyrocketed the cost of borrowing for the government.
Since he was fired on Friday and replaced by Jeremy Hunt, it has almost totally been overturned in a series of jarring U-turns.
We didn’t get a thorough briefing on the package the previous evening, Sir Jon told MPs today.
We would have engaged them if they had inquired about the market’s response.
However, it is the Treasury’s obligation, not ours, to advise the Government on fiscal policy.
In a grueling PMQs today, Liz acknowledged that she was “sad” and had “made errors” about the mini-Budget. She said that she acted “too quickly and too far.”
Keir Starmer joked that she would quit “before Christmas” since her “dream economics ended in catastrophe,” but Ms. Truss said she had no plans to do so.
She echoed Labour’s Peter Mandelson’s catchphrase, “I am a fighter, not a quitter,” in her statement.
Conflicts erupted as food prices increased and inflation spiked back into double digits, further hurting already struggling Britons.
The government had hinted that real-term pension cutbacks were imminent as part of an urgent £40 billion budget reduction, but Ms. Truss attempted to put a stop to the discussion by announcing she would uphold the “triple lock” on the payments.
She purposefully refrained from promising the same thing about welfare increases, another area where Tories are likely to rebel.
She may only have a few days left, according to Steve Double, who described her position as “untenable,” and Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, has already received a letter of no confidence from William Wragg.