Labor criticizes Kwarteng for refusing to apologize for the impact of his mini-budget
Angela Rayner, Labor’s deputy leader, criticized Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, for refusing to apologize for the impact of his mini-budget in his interview on Talk TV last night. Even after the mini-budget ball, Kwasi Kwarteng said there is “more to come”. His own MPs sat on their hands as the disaster unfolded. The Tories have ruined the economy – and they won’t even apologize for all the damage they’ve done.pic.twitter.com/r2EGtDubXi — Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) November 11, 2022 When Kwarteng was asked by the present, Tom Newton Dunn, whether he would apologize to people who had to pay more for their mortgages after the mini-budget, as lenders raised their rates in response to the assumption in the markets that the Kwarteng’s policies would lead to the Bank of England raising interest rates more than expected, Kwarteng replied: I’m not going to, I’m not going to comment on that. I think it was sad. And I think people were very worried. Interest rates were rising. The Bank of England raised interest rates and all this was happening. But there was turmoil and I regret it. Newton Dunn asked Kwarteng two more times if he would apologize, but Kwarteng continued to refuse. “I don’t want to relive the past,” he said. “I just want to focus on where we are next week.” But he said he was sorry for what people who had to remortgage were going through. “I really feel sympathy for that,” he said. But he still felt the “strategic objectives” of the mini-budget were right, he said, even though the implementation was flawed. I will post more from the Kwarteng interview soon. Here’s our overnight story on it, from my colleague Nadeem Badshah.
Sturgeon and Drakeford describe talks with Sunak as constructive
As my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports, Rishi Sunak appeared to make a pretty good impression when he held his first face-to-face meeting with Thai captain Micheál Martin last night at the opening of the British-Irish summit Council. The Irish government’s account of the meeting is here. Sunak’s meetings with Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister (in person), and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister (virtually – he has Covid), were also described as constructive. His predecessor, Liz Truss, didn’t even call them both in her short time as Prime Minister, and Boris Johnson’s relationship with the two was fractious. This is from Sky News. Rishi Sunak met Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for his first face-to-face meeting with her since becoming Prime Minister. He described their meeting as “cordial and constructive”. Latest: https://t.co/WUNquWe61F 📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/GnfuyP7Vlc — Sky News (@SkyNews) November 10, 2022 And this is from Adrian Masters, ITV Cymru’s political editor. The most positive I have heard from the Welsh Government in years is after talks with the Prime Minister. A spokesman says it’s “worth noting that the feeling is that the relationship with the UK government is getting back to normal after a strange few years”. https://t.co/OkU2zlCWib — Adrian Masters (@adrianmasters84) November 10, 2022 Updated at 09:53 GMT
Hunt rejects Kwarteng’s claim mini-budget not to blame for state of UK finances
Good morning. We’re less than a week away from the Autumn Statement – in effect, the second Autumn Budget – and already a blame game has broken out in the Conservative party over who is responsible for the massive spending cuts and tax rises the nation is about to face . In an interview on Talk TV last night, his first since being sacked as chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng dismissed claims that his mini-budget was primarily to blame. When told that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, were going to blame him for all the problems, Kwarteng replied: You know, the only thing they could possibly accuse us of is that interest rates and interest rates have gone down and gold rates have gone down. The black hole and structural problems are already there. I mean, it wasn’t like the national debt was created by Liz Truss’s 44 days in government. When challenged again, Kwarteng even questioned whether it was right to talk about a black hole in the first place. He said: The national debt has not changed fundamentally since Liz Truss… There is no black hole and the interest rates and gold rate that finance the debt are exactly the same as before the mini budget. So the black hole has not been caused by the mini budget. It’s something that Jeremy and Rishi and their officials will have to deal with on their own, regardless of what happened in the budget. But Hunt does not accept this. Asked about Kwarteng’s claim in an interview with Sky News this morning, he replied: All I would say is that when we produced a budget statement that didn’t show how we were going to reduce our debt in the medium term, the markets reacted very badly and so we learned that you can’t finance spending or borrowing without showing how you’re going to pay it and that will I am doing. Hunt did not address Kwarteng’s specific argument, but clearly implied that his predecessor was at fault. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt responds to comments by his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, saying: “We’ve learned you can’t fund spending or borrowing without showing how you’re going to pay for it – and that’s what I’m going to do.”https://t.co/ PAiZ4D1jU3 📺 Sky 501, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/sZxs2VF42E — Sky News (@SkyNews) November 11, 2022 Hunt gave an interview to respond to growth data this morning showing the economy shrank 0.2 percent in the third quarter of the year. Larry Elliott and Richard Partington have the full story here. And Graeme Wearden has more on the business live blog. Parliament is not in session today and there is not much on the calendar. But Keir Starmer is visiting veterans in north London and Michael Gove, the Home Secretary, is due to hold a press conference at around 12.45pm. at the end of the British-Irish Council summit. I’m trying to follow the comments below the line (BTL) but it’s impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, include “Andrew” somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I try to answer questions and if they’re of general interest I’ll post the question and answer above the line (ATL), though I can’t promise I’ll do it for everyone. If you want to get my attention quickly, it’s probably best to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow. Alternatively you can email me at [email protected] Updated at 09:49 GMT
