White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday said President Joe Biden is standing by his recent comments about UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’ abandoned tax cut plan.
Over the weekend, Mr Biden said it was “predictable” that Ms Truss and her Tory government would be forced to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without corresponding spending cuts after the proposal roiled financial markets and sent the Pound tumbling against the US dollar.
“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake," said Mr Biden. He added that he “disagree[s] with the policy”.
Asked if Mr Biden regrets the comments, which were an unusual public statement regarding an ally’s domestic policies, Ms Jean-Pierre said: “No”.
Mr Biden previously stirred controversy by speaking out against “trickle-down economics” in what was widely considered to be a veiled swipe at Ms Truss’ mini-budget, just ahead of a meeting between the two leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.
In a tweet posted just before the September meeting, Mr Biden wrote: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked. We’re building an economy from the bottom up and middle out”.
Mr Biden has also been an outspoken opponent of attempts to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol, which has been another point of contention between the Democratic administration and successive Conservative governments under Ms Truss and Boris Johnson, her predecessor.
Ms Jean-Pierre’s comments came hours after Ms Truss avoided being pressed on her economic plans by Sir Keir Starmer by sending Leader of the Commons Penny Mourdant to speak in her place at Prime Minister’s Questions on Monday.
The prime minister is facing calls for her resignation from members of her own party, with Tory MPs expected to meet for discussions of how best to ease Ms Truss from No 10 in the face of Conservative Party rules which would normally preclude another leadership change so soon after the Tories defenestrated Mr Johnson.
