Following days of market turmoil and public statements of reassurance from the Chancellor and Governor of the Bank of England – reportedly resisted by Liz Truss – the International Monetary Fund urged the Government to reverse its recent proposals for tax cuts.
The IMF said they were “closely monitoring recent economic developments in the UK”, that Truss and Kwarteng should “reevaluate the tax measures, especially those that benefit high-income earners”, and that the mini-Budget might undermine the Bank of England’s efforts to control inflation. Privately, Truss blamed Tom Scholar, the recently-sacked former Treasury Permanent Secretary, for the intervention.
Meanwhile, at Labour’s party conference, Keir Starmer argued the Conservatives had “lost control of the British economy” and “crashed the pound” for “tax cuts for the richest 1 per cent in society”. He pledged that a Labour government would establish a publicly-owned energy company. Rupa Huq, a Labour MP, was suspended for suggesting Kwarteng was only “superficially black”.
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