Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have been accused of being “incompetent” and having “lost all credibility” after a dramatic U-turn on plans to scrap the top rate of income tax for the highest earners.
The Chancellor confirmed on Monday morning that the Conservative Government was abandoning heavily-criticised proposals to remove the 45% rate on earnings over £150,000, less than two weeks after the tax cut was announced in his mini-budget. Catherine McKinnell, the Labour MP for Newcastle North, said that while she thought the move was “the right decision, the damage is already done”.
She added: “Handing out tax cuts to the wealthiest during a cost of living crisis showed very clearly whose side the Conservatives are on, regardless of this screeching u-turn. Merely weeks in office, the Truss Government has lost all credibility. Only yesterday the Prime Minister and countless ministers were pledging to stick with their tax cut. We cannot afford more of this chaos at the heart of government.”
Read More: Government drops plans for 45p rate tax cut after mounting opposition
Mr Kwarteng’s climbdown on Monday came after days of economic turmoil and disquiet at the Tory party conference in Birmingham, with the likes of Michael Gove and Grant Shapps openly criticising the plans. The Chancellor said that the policy had become a “terrible distraction”, adding: “We get it, and we have listened.”
Labour’s North of Tyne mayor, Jamie Driscoll, said: “I take no joy in watching the British government make a mess of the British economy. I would rather have a competent government that we defeat because we have better policies than a incompetent one that collapses under its own weight. This decision is the result of revolting Tory MPs at party conference, not because of Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss caring about what is happening to working British people.”
South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck added that the Chancellor’s announcement was “nothing to do with listening or getting it, everything to do with self preservation”.
Dehenna Davison, the Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland, said on Sunday that there had been a “mixed bag” of reaction from her constituents to the widely-criticised mini-budget. She told a conference fringe event: “I think people recognise that we do need to do things differently, we do need to really do something to get the economy on track really quickly.
“So there are people who recognise that and are really pleased about it. But there are people who are worried about elements of the mini-budget, for sure. I think looking at some of the reports we have seen in the news, it’s completely understandable.
“I think what people need right now above all else is reassurance and knowing that there is a plan. The government has a plan, this isn’t just tax cuts for the sake of tax cuts, it’s to get the economy growing, and in the medium term we are going to get that debt down, we are going to start getting the public finances under control.”
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