As the new King made his first visit to Wales, rumours continued to swirl of the reported ‘bonfire of legislation’ that Liz Truss was planning. The bill of rights, the obesity strategy, the cap on bankers’ bonuses, the online harms bill – all were rumoured to have been looked at by a government revisiting its priorities. Reports suggested that the Prime Minister aimed to lift the ban on fracking, having said she wanted to “end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale”.
Meanwhile, Truss and Kwarteng were preparing a new bid to encourage Japan’s SoftBank to list British tech company Arm in London. The Chancellor continued to work on a “Big Bang 2.0” deregulation push, including removing Brussels’ Solvency II rules, and end to the cap on bonuses. The Government also warned the European Union that Brexit border checks would not return in Northern Ireland.
Away from prying eyes, junior ministerial appointments continued, despite Downing Street having claimed they were paused. Zac Goldsmith, an ally of Boris Johnson, was sacked as an environment minister but remained at the Foreign Office.
With acknowledgments to Harry Cole and James Heale‘s Out of the Blue: the Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss