UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted it was a mistake to attend a champagne reception for Tory donors on the day when he unveiled the so-called mini-budget.
He insisted he spent a quarter of an hour, maybe more, at the event organized by the Conservative party, as he gave an interview for LBC Radio on Monday. When asked whether he regretted attending the gathering, Kwarteng said:
“I think it was a difficult call and I totally get how it looks. I just feel that it was something that I was signed up to do and I had to do… With hindsight it probably wasn’t the best way to go.”
Previously, The Sunday Times reported that the Chancellor had joined the gathering at the Chelsea home of a City financier, Andrew Law, on the evening of September 23rd. At the time, traders were shorting the pound sterling among financial turmoil triggered by Kwarteng’s announcement of £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts in his Growth Plan mini-budget earlier in the day.
The Chancellor is alleged to have told attendees at the reception of further austerity-style budget cuts looming, according to The Sunday Times.
“He wanted to give an unadulterated message of ‘growth, growth, growth’, and that’s why he didn’t talk about savings, because otherwise the [news] agenda would have been all about savings – ‘Where will you cut? What will you cut? Blah blah blah.’ They’re fully aware they have to make savings,” a source told the newspaper.
1 September 2022, 17:16 GMT
The pound fell to a record low against the dollar as markets reacted to the UK's biggest tax cuts in 50 years, standing at $1.03 early on Monday before regaining some ground. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to save pension funds.
‘Out of Touch’
Anneliese Dodds, Labour party chair, wrote to her Conservative counterpart, Jake Berry, urging him to produce a full list of attendees at the event and reveal if they paid a fee to be there or pledged donations, UK media reported.
“Many people are sickened by the image of champagne-quaffing Conservative donors encouraging the chancellor to press ahead with further tax cuts for billionaires, at the same time as many members of the British public are unable to access a mortgage,” she wrote.
The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman, Sarah Olney, demanded a probe into what Kwarteng told donors, adding:
“While struggling homeowners saw their mortgage bills spiral, it seems the chancellor was sipping champagne with hedge fund managers profiting from the falling pound. How out of touch can you get? We need an official inquiry into this now.”
The Tory chairman, also present at the event in question, has since defended the gathering.
“It wasn’t a get-together of hedge fund managers, it was Britain’s leading entrepreneurs. Yes, I was there, but it’s the normal drumbeat of treasurer’s events that we have all the time,” he told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
Prime Minister Liz Truss had added that meeting business people was part of the Chancellor’s job.
Meanwhile, the Tories have been slumping to their lowest rating since 1997 in the British public's view, while Labour is soaring with voters, according to Sky News's rolling average of 10 latest polls, updated on October 1. The opposition party headed by Sir Keir Starmer has returned to a level of popularity not seen since 2001.