Bank of England was NOT TOLD about contents of the disastrous ‘mini-Budget’ that sent the markets into meltdown, says deputy governor
- Bank of England deputy government says not briefed on contents in advance
- Jon Cunliffe suggested officials could have advised on the likely market impact
- Almost all the measures have now been ditched in series of screeching U-turns
The Bank of England was kept in the dark about the contents of the huge ‘mini-Budget’ that sent the markets into meltdown, it was revealed today.
Deputy governor Jon Cunliffe said officials were not ‘fully briefed’ in advance about the package of £45billion of tax cuts, as would normally happen.
Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, Sir Jon insisted the Bank could have advised about the impact on traders if it had known.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s extraordinary ‘growth plan’ on September 23 sparked a crash in the Pound and sent the government’s borrowing cost spiralling.
It has now been almost entirely reversed in a series of screeching U-turns after he was sacked on Friday and replaced by Jeremy Hunt.
Bank of England deputy governor Jon Cunliffe told MPs that officials were not ‘fully briefed’ in advance about the package of £45billion of tax cuts, as would normally happen
Kwasi Kwarteng’s extraordinary ‘growth plan’ on September 23 sparked a crash in the Pound and sent the government’s borrowing cost spiralling. Pictured, Mr Kwarteng and Liz Truss at Tory conference
Sir Jon told MPs today: ‘We did not have a full briefing of the package the night before.
‘Had they asked us what the market reaction would be, we would have interacted with them.
‘But it is not our responsibility to give the Government advice on fiscal policy, it is the role of the Treasury.’
Liz admitted she was ‘sorry’ and had ‘made mistakes’ over the mini-Budget in an gruelling PMQs today. She has explained that she went ‘too far and too fast’.
But despite Keir Starmer joking that she will be ‘out by Christmas’ after her ‘fantasy economics ended in disaster’, Ms Truss insisted she will not resign.
‘I am a fighter not a quitter,’ she said, echoing a famous line from Labour’s Peter Mandelson.
The clashes came as inflation surged back into double-digits with food prices heaping more pain on hard-pressed Britons.
The government had been hinting that pensioners faced real-terms cuts as part of a desperate £40billion spending squeeze – but Ms Truss tried to kill off the issue by declaring she will stick to the ‘triple lock’ on the payments.
However, she pointedly stopped short of making the same promise on uprating benefits, another area where Tories are threatening to revolt.
Steve Double warned she could only have ‘days’ left as he called her position ‘untenable’, while William Wragg said he had sent a letter of no-confidence to the 1922 committee chief Graham Brady.
The package has now been almost entirely reversed in a series of screeching U-turns after he was sacked on Friday and replaced by Jeremy Hunt (pictured)
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