Markus Andrews

The Treasury watchdog will deliver a report on Kwasi Kwarteng’s backfiring budget next week, but the chancellor is refusing to publish it until November.The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was barred from assessing last week’s tax-slashing package – a controversial move which helped trigger the financial and political crisis that followed.Following an emergency meeting with Liz Truss and the chancellor, the OBR said it will deliver “an initial forecast” next Friday on “economic and fiscal prospects and the impact of the government’s policies”. More

A senior Tory MP says his party has already lost the next general election and is urging Liz Truss not to wreck the economy before the inevitable defeat.In extraordinary comments, Charles Walker said the government had a “duty to the country to get the public finances in the best shape possible” before it loses.As polls put the Conservatives up to 30 points behind Labour after the tax-slashing budget gamble backfired, Sir Charles it is “hard to construct an argument” that his party retain power. More

Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Devolved governments leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng over his “disastrous” mini-Budget and fears of new age of austerity. The finance ministers of Scotland, Wales and […] More

Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Liz Truss’s government is on course to make public spending cuts of almost £50bn a year after the “unenforced error” of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, according to top economists. Experts at […] More

Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Devolved governments leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng over his “disastrous” mini-Budget and fears of new age of austerity. The finance ministers of Scotland, Wales and […] More

Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Liz Truss’s government is considering ways to shrink the size of the welfare state, a key cabinet ally Simon Clarke has suggested. The levelling up secretary said ministers were looking […] More

Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Untreated sewage is being dumped into rivers in the environment secretary’s own constituency for an average of 11 hours every day, official figures show. According to Environment Agency statistics Ranil […] More

Liz Truss has admitted her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget caused “disruption” as she vowed to “do things differently” from previous Conservatives leaders.As Tories prepare for their annual conference, the prime minister warned the country faced a “difficult winter” ahead as she made clear she had no plans to change course her radical, borrowing-fuelled tax-cutting agenda.“I recognise there has been disruption, but it was really, really important we were able to get help to families as soon as possible,” the PM told broadcasters on Friday – pointing to the cap on the cost per unit of energy. More