Liz Truss sacks Kwasi Kwarteng before corporation tax U-turn

In the letter, Kwarteng argues that the plan to rapidly cut taxes was the correct one despite the turbulent market reaction. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

Liz Truss has sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as her chancellor and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt ahead of a U-turn on key sections of her disastrous mini-budget, as she launched a desperate attempt to restore her crumbling political authority.

In a rapidly moving sequence of events, the prime minister first dismissed Kwarteng, her longtime friend and ideological ally, as well as Chris Philp, the No 2 minister in the Treasury, who is being moved to the Cabinet Office.