Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax giveaway budget has been condemned as “inept madness” by a senior Conservative MP.
Simon Hoare compared the events of the past week to Black Wednesday in 1992, when the Conservative government’s claims to economic competence were blown out of the water by its failed attempt to keep the UK in the European exchange rate mechanism.
And he firmly rejected government suggestions that the turmoil in the markets was triggered by factors beyond its control, insisting that the problems were “authored” in No 10 and the Treasury.
The Bank of England stepped in today to try to calm volatile gilt markets, after the price demanded by traders for taking on government debt spiked in the wake of Friday’s “growth plan”.
And the International Monetary Fund last night took the extraordinary step of launching a stinging attack on Mr Kwarteng’s £45bn package of tax cuts, urging the chancellor to “re-evalute” the measures.
Mr Hoare, who chairs the Commons Northern Ireland Committee, recalled the reaction of then the Tory chancellor after the failure of his attempt to keep sterling in the ERM by hiking interest rates to 12 per cent: “In the words of Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday: ‘Today has been a very difficult day’.
“These are not circumstances beyond the control of Govt/Treasury . They were authored there. This inept madness cannot go on.”
