Kwasi Kwarteng had ‘taken his eye off the ball’
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had “taken his eye off the ball” with his mini-budget announcement, Liz Truss’s external adviser on the economy has said.
Gerard Lyons told sky news that Kwasi Kwarteng failed to prepare the markets before the big announcement last week.
Mr Lyons said: “The chancellor, whilst he had focused on the general public and on British businesses, he had not really prepared the financial markets fully.
“And I think he had taken his eye off the ball slightly, shall we say, in having not prepared the markets for what he was doing in the budget and I felt that he overstepped the mark last week.
“So it was a combination of all three factors – the febrile markets because of the global backdrop, the actions of the Bank of England last Thursday, but let’s be in no doubt, it was primarily the mini-budget last Friday that triggered this latest series of events.”
