Night of the hurried U-turn: how Truss and Kwarteng dumped their tax cut

Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss agreed to cancel their planned top-rate tax cut after comparing notes on Tory MPs’ opposition. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

As Liz Truss waited to take the stage at an event for northern MPs on the drinks reception circuit at the Conservative party conference on Sunday night, she was introduced enthusiastically as the “tax-cutting prime minister” by the party chair, Jake Berry.

Just over half an hour later, the prime minister set out her philosophy on taxes to the party faithful at a drinks party on the 25th floor of the upmarket Cube building in Birmingham. “Frankly, we haven’t made enough conservative arguments for the past few years,” she told them.