Kwasi Kwarteng has “not ruled out” returning to the cabinet despite crashing the economy with his disastrous mini-Budget.
The former chancellor said it was a “great privilege” to serve in government before he was sacked in disgrace by then-prime minister Liz Truss last October, just days before she was forced to resign.
In an interview with GB News, Mr Kwarteng kept the door open for a return to the front benches, saying: “I haven’t ruled out anything. I mean, it was a great privilege to be business secretary and then chancellor. I was removed by the prime minister, but let’s be very clear, it wasn’t a plot or anything like that.
“I think it’s the prime minister’s prerogative. And that was what she chose to do. Now looking back and I said it at the time, I thought it was bizarre because it was obvious to me that she wouldn’t last very much longer once she’d taken that move, but that was her decision.”
Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss spooked the financial markets in September 2022 with a wave of unfunded tax cuts which saw the pound tank as the cost of mortgages and government debt surged.
Mr Kwarteng became the country’s second shortest-lived chancellor in history, in office just days longer than Iain Macleod, who died after 30 days in post in 1970, before being ousted.
After he was sacked, Mr Kwarteng’s budget measures were almost unanimously scrapped by his successor, Jeremy Hunt.
Mr Kwarteng was further disgraced last month when he was caught in a sting offering to work for a fake Korean firm. The MP for Spelthorne in northern Surrey offered to set up a meeting with former prime minister Boris Johnson during a staged interview.
He also looked to “sell” himself by highlighting his experience serving “briefly” as chancellor and also as a business secretary and energy minister. Mr Kwarteng indicated he would take on external consultancy work for the firm for a rate of £10,000 per day.
In his GB News interview, Mr Kwarteng also showered the prime minister with praise, insisting that he is “very pro-Rishi”.
“I think the prime minister is doing a good job. He was good enough to call me the day I was sacked, which I thought was very good, you know he behaved very well. And he’s someone I’ve known and admired ever since he got into parliament,” Mr Kwarteng said.
And the former chancellor appears to have forgiven long-time friend, Ms Truss, saying the two are still on speaking terms, following reports to the contrary after Ms Truss sacked him from the Treasury.
