‘It’s been a painful lesson’: Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng warned by cabinet members to end ‘casual mistakes’ tearing the Tories apart
- Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng warned against making ‘casual mistakes’
- The pair were forced into a massive U-turn over plans to lower the top tax rate
- This week’s Tory party conference was ravaged by blue-on-blue attacks
Ministers have warned Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to put an end to the ‘casual mistakes’ that the Conservative Party‘s annual conference.
One said the chancellor had learned a “very painful lesson” about the “failed” handling of the emergency budget, which led to a dramatic turnaround over plans to scrap the top tax rate of 45 pence.
Another accused the prime minister of the cabinet’s power struggle over plans to push the benefits bill, saying No. 10 ministers had been given no advice on what the government was trying to achieve.
The annual Tories meeting in Birmingham was overshadowed by U-turns and infighting, with ministers bickering in public and Home Secretary Suella Braverman to blame Michael Gove attempted coup.
Liz Truss’s first month as Tory party leader was dominated by turns and infighting
Her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, pictured, was forced to roll back a controversial plan
The annual Tories meeting in Birmingham was overshadowed by U-turns and infighting, with ministers bickering in public and accusing Home Secretary Suella Braverman Michael Gove of an attempted ‘coup’
A cabinet source said Mr Kwarteng had screwed up his emergency budget by failing to prepare the ground for his £45bn tax cut plan at a time when the Bank of England is struggling to contain inflation.
The chancellor’s statement last month caused a sudden drop in the pound and was blamed for a major jump in the cost of government borrowing.
“Kwasi has had a very painful lesson, I just hope he learned from it,” said the source.
“There are good arguments for scrapping the 45 pence rate, but now is not the time and he certainly didn’t make it.
“He has told us he wants fiscal discipline and spending cuts, but again, he barely mentioned it in the budget and so the markets conclude that he doesn’t care.
“Then, even after the markets are shaken, he goes out again and says there’s more to come.
“It’s just naive – he has to understand, and I hope he does now, that when you’re chancellor, the markets listen to every syllable. We can no longer afford casual mistakes.’
A second minister blamed the prime minister for the public row over whether or not to increase benefits in line with revenues rather than inflation in a bid to save £7bn.
Miss Truss has told allies the plan is “defensible,” arguing that it is unfair to ask working people who will receive an average of 5 percent pay rises this year to pay higher taxes to fund a 10 percent increase for benefit claimants.
But House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and the Welsh Secretary of State Robert Buckland have both spoken out against the idea in recent days.
Michael Gove has been critical of the right-wing swing in the Tory party since Mrs Truss took over
Ms Mordaunt said benefit recipients should receive a 10 per cent increase, saying it would be wrong to ‘help people with one hand and take them away with the other’.
Her intervention prompted Downing Street to warn ministers to keep their thoughts private.
Conservative Party Chairman Jake Berry said: ‘A decision has to be made collectively and whatever people’s opinions are, the arena for discussion is the Cabinet Room and that’s where those discussions have to stay.’ However, a cabinet source said Ms Truss had made no effort to inform senior ministers of what she was up to. “To be fair to Penny, we’ve been kept in the dark about all of this,” the source said.
‘There has been no discussion within the cabinet about benefits and we have not been able to get a line. As with the tax cuts in the budget, we have remained in limbo.
‘Of course it is better if we speak with one voice. But it would be much easier to communicate the government’s strategy if No. 10 told us what it is.”
In a fresh outbreak of the Tory strife yesterday, former culture minister Nadine Dorries accused the government of ‘swinging to the right’ – and warned the Conservatives would lose the next election unless Miss Truss returned to the principles of Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto .
Ms Dorries called for a ‘reconsideration’ and said: ‘I understand we need to speed up growth, but you don’t do that by throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
“You don’t win elections by swinging to the right and leaving the center for Keir Starmer to hang his flag.”
Mr Berry said: ‘I have seen some comments from Nadine. Some I don’t understand and some I don’t agree with.’