UK PM Sacks Kwasi Kwarteng As UK Chancellor

According to a BBC report, Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked as the United Kingdom chancellor.

This comes after speculation that the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss will on Friday announce a U-turn on parts of the mini-budget. With his sacking, it means Kwarteng is the second shortest-serving UK chancellor on record.

READ ALSO: Former Malaysian PM, Mahathir Mohamad To Run For Office Aged 97

Number 10 announced an hour after his sacking that Jeremy Hunt was replacing him.

Mr Kwarteng’s downfall was set in motion by the mini-budget on 23 September, in which he announced £45bn in unfunded tax cuts.

The mini-budget pushed the pound to a record low against the dollar, sent the cost of government borrowing and mortgage rates up and led to an unprecedented intervention by the Bank of England.

Chris Philp, who was heavily involved in plans for the mini-budget, has also lost his job as chief secretary to the Treasury but has been moved to the Cabinet Office as paymaster general.

In Mr Kwarteng’s letter to Ms Truss accepting he had been sacked, he said: “You have asked me to stand aside as your chancellor. I have accepted.”

He said he accepted the job “in full knowledge that the situation we faced was incredibly difficult, with rising global interest rates and energy prices”.

But he said the PM’s “vision of optimism, growth and change was right” and “following the status quo was simply not an option”.

He finished his letter by saying they have been “colleagues and friends for many years” and he believes her “vision is the right one”.

READ ALSO: Hope Fading In Search For Venezuela Landslide Survivors

“It has been an honour to serve as your first chancellor. Your success is this country’s success and I wish you well,” he wrote.

The shortest serving chancellor, Iain Macleod, died of a heart attack 30 days after taking the job in 1970.

Since 2019, the UK has had four chancellors, including Nadhim Zahawi who served the third shortest tenure with 63 days during a short-lived reshuffle under Boris Johnson, and Sajid Javid who served 204 days – the fourth shortest tenure since the Second World War.