KWASI RUSHES HOME INTO U-TURN STORM

CRISIS TALKS WITH TRUSS AS OUR POLL SHOWS HIS RATINGS AT A RECORD LOW

- Nicholas Cecil and Simon English

KWASI KWARTENG flew home early from Washington today for crisis talks with Liz Truss on quelling market turmoil with another humiliating U-turn on his mini-budget.

As they raced to stop the economic chaos from imperilling the Government, the Chancellor was widely expected to be forced to shred more of his fiscal plans. With markets already pricing in Mr Kwarteng having to again take the axe to his minibudget, he was warned that his move had to be bold and convincing” and performed quickly, possibly before the Bank of England this afternoon withdraws emergency support that was put in place to ensure Britain’s financial stability.

To calm the markets, though, Mr Kwarteng had to take a political hit by further watering down his radical dash-for-growth reforms, which included more than 40 billion of unfunded tax cuts.

Key elements were the 17 billion decision not to go ahead with the previously planned rise in corporation tax, scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonuses, and axing the 45p top rate of income tax, which he has already been forced to U-turn on.

In a further blow to his reputation, an Ipsos poll for the Evening Standard showed he had plunged to a record low of nearly 50 years for chancellors after his mini-budget mayhem.

It found 65 per cent of adults in Britain are dissatisfied with him, and just 12 per cent satisfied, giving him a net rating of 53 at just over a month into the job. No other chancellor has had a worse rating even as far back as when Denis Healey was at the Treasury helm in 1976, the year that the Labour government had to beg the International Monetary Fund fora bailout.