Following increasing warnings from inside and outside of the Treasury about the looming need for cuts to public spending, Liz Truss told PMQs that she was “not planning public spending reductions”. This was news to those in Downing Street who realised inflation would constrain spending, and fears were raised as to whether, like Boris Johnson, she might be accused of misleading the House.
Meanwhile, Kwasi Kwarteng travelled to Washington for meetings at the IMF. His mini-Budget proposals did not receive the warmest reception from those he met. Kwarteng was later “blindsided” by reports that the reverse in the rise of corporation tax were going to be u-turned on, prompting more market speculation.
Back in Westminster, Truss had a “bruising” meeting with the 1922 Committee. One loyal minister told the BBC: “We are completely in a dreadful place. There is no way out – maybe Liz Truss will find a way, but I cannot see it.” Robert Halfon suggested that she had trashed the party’s record across the previous decade.
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