Since 2015, Kwasi Kwarteng, who was first elected to Parliament in 2010, has held various positions within the government. After 38 days as Chancellor under Liz Truss, he was dismissed due to the repercussions surrounding the mini-budget.
Ahead of the next election, former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will resign.
Following the delivery of the catastrophic mini-budget, then-Prime Minister Liz Truss fired Mr. Kwarteng and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt in an effort to reassure markets.
Shortly thereafter, the Truss administration came to an end.
Mr. Kwarteng represents the Surrey constituency of Spelthorne with a majority of 18,393.
Mr. Kwarteng stated via social media: “I informed the chair of my association yesterday that I will not be running in the upcoming general election.
It has been a privilege to represent the residents of Spelthorne in Parliament since 2010, and that honour will persist for the duration of my term.
He becomes the 55th Conservative Member of Parliament to declare his intention to abstain from running in the next election.
Ms. Truss made the declaration just prior to the inauguration of her “Popular Conservatives” movement.
Mr. Kwarteng has held several positions in Conservative administrations since 2015, including Minister of Business and Brexit. In January 2021, Boris Johnson elevated him to the Cabinet as Business Secretary.
Kwarteng’s Brief Tenure and Turmoil
He was a staunch advocate for Ms. Truss’s campaign to lead the Conservative Party and the country; as a result of his close association with her, she bestowed upon him the position of Chancellor on 6 September 2022.
38 days later, on 14 October 2022, he was terminated.
Mr. Kwarteng presented the mini-budget on 23 September 2022. Ms. Truss advocated this budget as the economic strategy, claiming it would stimulate economic growth.
It followed a proposal disclosed to limit energy costs for an average household to £2,500 in response to escalating expenses.
The subsequent events were political and market anarchy, fears of pension firm insolvency, and ultimately the defenestration of the second-shortest-serving Chancellor in the United Kingdom. Only Iain Macleod, who passed away thirty days after assuming the position in 1970, had a shorter tenure overseeing the nation’s finances.
The Bank of England ultimately intervened to stabilise markets.
The energy limit, now estimated to have cost £21 billion, and the mini-budget failed to produce the results anticipated by the Truss team. Her campaigns had advocated for “supply-side reform” as a means to stimulate expansion.
Rishi Sunak, whom Ms. Truss defeated in a vote with Conservative members, consistently criticised her strategies for lacking financial viability.
The absence of an official forecast for the mini-budget, which is typically produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), was an element that alarmed markets.
Along with other measures such as eliminating the highest rate of income tax and maintaining corporation tax at 19%, this created uncertainty regarding the future of the United Kingdom’s economy and its ability to raise funds.
The Conservative Party conference of that year compelled Mr. Kwarteng to reverse his position on the income tax pledge.
He subsequently attended a summit of the International Monetary Fund in the United States but returned to the United Kingdom early.
As Mr. Kwarteng travelled to Downing Street, a journalist’s social media post informed him of his dismissal.
Later, Ms. Truss reaffirmed her reversal and stated that the corporation tax would increase to 25% as originally intended.
Following these occurrences, Mr. Kwarteng has conceded that his decision to exclude the OBR from his planning was “likely a mistake.”
