In England, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been sacked and Liz Truss is on the loose

In a hollow voice, Liz Truss tried to draw a line under her disastrous debut at the helm of the British government on Friday, October 14. Within six weeks of becoming Prime Minister, and three weeks afterA budget that caused financial panic, she hastily called a press conference. He announced that he had fired Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Kwasi Kwarteng, with whom he was very close, and finally dropped a key measure in his budget, raising taxes on corporations. “The priority is to ensure economic stability. (…) It’s tough, but we’ll weather the storm. »

M^me After answering just four questions, Truss ended the press conference after nine minutes, naming the new president Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Party’s cacique who was fired from government three years ago. A symbol of the current instability of British politics, he is the fourth holder of the post since earlier this year. We have to go back to 1834 to find such rapid succession.

Liz Truss’ tenure as head of the British government, which began on 6 September, was derailed on 23 September when her chancellor presented the budget. anger Freezing of gas and electricity charges He announced the biggest tax cuts since 1972 (after all, more than double last year), without explaining the funding. Alarmed, financial markets immediately gave way to action: the pound sterling fell to its lowest level against the dollar in its history, and interest rates on British loans rose. It took the intervention of the Bank of England to restore calm. Opinion polls have followed the trend: the Conservatives now trail Labor by an average of twenty-six points, 26% against 50%.

Broken authority

Mr. Quarteng and Mr.^me Truss, close friends who spent all summer preparing the budget together, tried to get out of this bad connection. They first announced the cancellation of the income tax cut for the rich (which would drop from 45% to 40% on those over €172,000 a year). Then, faced with internal turmoil in the Conservative Party and continued jitters in the markets, the Prime Minister on Thursday evening, Mr. He decided to remove Quarteng. The latter hastily returned from Washington, where the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund was held, to tender his resignation. He lasted thirty-eight days in office.

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