“Kwasi is a very nice man but he was out of his depth as Chancellor,” says one member of Staines Conservative Club of their local MP’s brief tenure in 11 Downing Street.
This view is repeated by others, both at the club and among non-Tory voters in Kwasi Kwarteng’s Surrey constituency of Spelthorne, two days after he was sacked as Chancellor by his close friend and ideological ally Liz Truss.
Peter Andrews, 61, adds that despite viewing Mr Kwarteng as being “out of his depth”, he still thinks he was “thrown under the bus by Liz Truss”.
“They wanted to put in true Tory things like low tax and small government but they should have got it costed, that’s the trouble,” Mr Andrews says.
The self-employed courier says that his ideal choice of next leader in the event of Liz Truss departing Number 10 would be Tory veteran Sir John Redwood.
However, his pool-playing partner at the club, Brian Burt, a 63-year-old railway worker, says he thinks it is Mr Kwarteng’s replacement, Jeremy Hunt, who is most likely to fill any void at the top of government because “he’s got the experience and he’s believable”.
Aashish Joshi, a 49-year-old IT manager and fellow member of Staines Conservative Club, shared the opinion that their MP had been “thrown under the bus” by Ms Truss for the spectacular failure of the Government’s mini-budget.
“Kwasi didn’t make any decisions because the Prime Minister is ultimately responsible for what goes on – so she had to sign off on everything that was being done.”
Mr Joshi added: “He’s been a good local MP – but with no disrespect to Kwasi Kwarteng – I don’t believe he was actually qualified to be put in that position and he’s been made something of a scapegoat now.”
One stop closer to London on the Reading-Waterloo railway line, in Ashford, there is more sympathy for the Spelthorne MP, mixed with doubts over his suitability for the job of being in charge of the economy in the first place.
“I feel sorry for him but I don’t think he was the right person for the job,” says 81-year-old Merryn Barber.
“He seems a nice enough chap – I do feel sorry for him in the way it was done,” Ms Barber adds, referencing the way he flew back early from an IMF meeting in Washington DC, only to be relieved of his ministerial duties by the Prime Minister shortly after landing.
However, Paul Manning, 73, from Ashford, is more fatalistic about the manner of his MP’s departure from Government: “I don’t think there’s such a thing as fairness in politics – if you expect to get a kick between the legs, you go into it knowing that.
“I think Kwarteng knows that as well and that’s why he’s not appearing to be bitter.”
