US President Joe Biden hit out at “trickle-down economics” as he prepared for a meeting with Liz Truss, who plans to slash taxes in the hope of stimulating growth.
Mr Biden said he was “sick and tired” of the theory that cutting taxes for businesses and the wealthy will see the benefits “trickle down” into the pockets of poorer workers.
His comments came as the Prime Minister and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng finalise a mini-budget on Friday. This is expected to see previously planned increases in corporation tax scrapped and the hike in national insurance reversed, while also ending a curb on bankers’ bonuses.
In a message on Twitter, Mr Biden said: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked.
“We’re building an economy from the bottom up and middle out.”
While the message was presumably intended for a domestic US audience, it underlines the economic and political divide between the Democrat in the White House and the free-market Tory in No 10.
The two leaders will meet in New York on Wednesday, where they are both attending events as part of the United Nations general assembly.
