THE Scottish Greens have said that Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng “has no option but to go” following a U-turn on his plan to scrap the 45p tax rate for top earners.
The Chancellor’s mini-budget was announced just ten days ago but both he and Liz Truss have since come under significant pressure to re-think their original plans.
This included an extraordinary statement from the International Monetary Fund as well as intervention from the Bank of England.
On this morning's announcement, Scottish Greens economy spokesperson Maggie Chapman said: “This is a colossal U-turn from the Chancellor which leaves him humiliated and his position untenable. He has no option but to go.
“It also brings into sharp focus the Prime Minister’s judgement for both appointing him in the first place and then signing off on his mini-budget.
“The tax cut for the super-rich in particular had all the hallmarks of being written on the back of a napkin over a bottle of champagne but has quickly lost its fizz despite all their efforts to defend it.”
The Chancellor acknowledged that the UK Government’s plans to borrow heavily to axe the 45% tax rate on earnings over £150,000 had become a “terrible distraction” amid widespread criticism, some of which came from Tory MPs. This included former Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps.
Kwarteng had been due to tell the Conservative Party conference that they must “stay the course” on the plans.
Truss also defended the UK Government’s mini-budget during an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC on Sunday.
Chapman added: “Their package was always going to be cruel and unfair on struggling households, it has brought business to the brink and has saddled the country with eye-watering debt.
“It is clear the Chancellor is finished, his credibility is bankrupt, and Liz Truss is clinging on in the face of mounting internal pressure.
“She threw her Chancellor under a bus at the weekend to try and save her own skin, but the damage has been done.
“For this withering reverse to happen on the day of the Tory conference shows a party at war, a Cabinet divided and a Prime Minister without a clue.”
As well his announcement this morning, Kwarteng also confirmed up to £18 billion worth of cuts to public services.
Pressed on what the plans meant for his own credibility, Kwarteng told BBC Breakfast: “We are 100% focused on the growth plan.
“I have been in Parliament for 12 years, there have been lots of policies which, when government listens to people, they have decided to change their minds.”
Asked if he had considered resigning, he added: “Not at all. What I am looking at is the growth plan and delivering what is a radial plan to drive growth in this country, to reduce taxes, to put more money that people earn in their pockets.”
The SNP’s shadow Chancellor Alison Thewliss MP described the measures in the mini-budget as “morally repugnant” and said it was “inevitable” the plans would be reversed.
Thewliss said: “The Tory budget has been a disaster. It was inevitable this morally repugnant and hugely expensive policy would have to be reversed – after doing so much damage to people’s mortgages, pensions and the UK economy.
“People in Scotland will not forget that Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng wanted to rob the poor to pay the rich – and this U-turn will not distract from the fact that they are still planning to impose a new wave of devastating Tory austerity cuts, which will hurt the poorest and threaten our NHS.”
Thewliss also called on Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross (below) to apologise after he demanded that Holyrood replicate the tax cuts which were originally planned.
She added: “Douglas Ross should be apologising for demanding that the Scottish Government replicate this damaging policy in Scotland.
“It’s no wonder Tory MSPs are plotting to have him removed as Scottish Tory leader. It’s completely inept.”
Recently, a “senior” source inside the Scottish Tories told The Sun there were “at least two separate moves” against Ross in the works.
At the time a Scottish Tory spokesperson said: “Douglas is focused on holding the SNP to account and tackling the cost-of-living crisis.”
Thewliss added: “The disastrous Tory budget underlines why it’s essential that Scotland becomes an independent country, so we can escape the damage of Westminster control and get rid of the Tories for good.”
Chapman said that “strong, compassionate leadership” was needed in order to support families through the cost-of-living crisis.
She continued: “If their first plan was shambolic and cruel, what happens next now they have been forced to rip it up?
“All at a time when campaigners like the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are telling us one in five Scottish households have gone cold or hungry because of poverty.
“The Tories have always been the party of the super-rich. Now they aren’t even that.
“At Holyrood we will continue to mitigate the impacts of all of this with measures to help households through this energy and cost-of-living crisis, putting people and planet before profit.
“That’s in stark contrast to what we are seeing from Downing Street.”
