Nothing to see here: Truss allies’ curious excuses for financial meltdown

Esther Addley
·3 min read
<span>Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters</span>
Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Who or what could be to blame for the wild economic turmoil that immediately followed Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on Friday?

Some – such as the IMF, US Federal Reserve officials, a former US Treasury secretary, many leading bankers and economists, and a number of Tory MPs – think the two events are directly related.

But amid a barrage of criticism, the prime minister and a band of her loyal allies have emerged to explain who they think is really to blame.

Vladimir Putin

Liz Truss embarked on local media interviews on Thursday with one culprit in mind, and wasn’t going to be diverted from her script: “This is about Putin and the war in Ukraine.” “So the Bank of England’s action [on Wednesday] was the fault of Vladimir Putin, was it?” asked James Hanson of BBC Radio Bristol. A pause. “What I was saying is it is very difficult and stormy times …”

Remainers

To the hedge fund manager and Tory donor Crispin Odey, the current crisis was triggered by “remainers” in the City who, he told the Telegraph, “have just decided that they hate this government. Obviously Kwasi they hate now as well, and they think Liz Truss is useless. They can’t stand poor Jacob Rees-Mogg.”. That’s the same Crispin Odey who on Tuesday described his lucrative bets against government bonds amid the crashing economy as “the gifts that keep on giving”.

The Bank of England

Britain’s central bank may have been forced to make a dramatic intervention on Wednesday to stop pension funds collapsing, but to Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, the Bank itself was to blame.

“The Bank of England has let us down badly by not putting up interest rates last year,” he told the Today programme, adding that it had both “been slightly asleep on the job” and “let the horse bolt from the stable”.

Fracking

Or more specifically, the lack of it. The pound and euro were at a record low against the dollar, Bridgen went on, “because of what has happened in Ukraine with Mr Putin and his invasion”, and because the US is more energy self-sufficient.

“They have energy security within their own borders. We haven’t, and had we been fracking two years ago we would have been in a better place.”

HS2

More Bridgen analysis, in the curious absence of many other Tory MPs willing to speak out in defence of the mini-budget. Kwarteng could have cut spending before his announcement, the MP conceded – “For instance if the white elephant that is HS2 were cut that would show more fiscal control and control of spending.”

Keir Starmer

“You really think this is about tax cuts?… Come off it!” Rely on true Brexit believer Daniel Hannan to find the real culprit: Labour.

“What we have seen since Friday is partly a market adjustment to the increased probability that Sir Keir Starmer will win in 2024 or 2025 – leading to higher taxes, higher spending, and a weaker economy,” he wrote on Conservative Home. The timing is obviously an unfortunate coincidence.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Junior Andre shares touching photos from Australia visit alongside sister Princess - 'So much love'

    Junior and Princess Andre recently headed to Australia to visit their grandparents and on Wednesday, Junior shared touching photos from the family visit. See photos.

  • Key Trump allies indicted over Arizona ‘fake electors’ as ex-president heads back to court: Live

    Former president’s historic ‘hush money’ election interference trial is underway in New York

  • Ukrainian Animal Rescuers Make Perilous Journey to Save Pets Near Donetsk Frontline

    The perilous journey made by animal rescuers in Ukraine towards the frontlines in Donetsk has been documented by a journalist, who described “intense” shelling nearby as members of Animal Rescue Kharkiv recovered dogs, cats, and other pets.Alfons Cabrera told Storyful he accompanied the rescuers, Ruslan and Max, on April 21 as they left Kharkiv for Soloviove and Kurakhove in Donetsk. There they met Aliona, he said, an army medic. According to the Institute for the Study of War’s latest control-of-territory map, Soloviove is less than a mile from the latest Russian advances.Shells can be heard falling and exploding nearby at several points in Cabrera’s footage. “Just lay, because the shrapnel can fly very, very far,” one rescuer can be heard telling Cabrera as they take cover. At one point, Cabrera said, “three projectiles hit nearby” as they drove.“At the end of the day, they carry in their van eight dogs, eight cats, three goats and a rabbit,” Cabrera told Storyful.Cabrera said around 1,000 animals have been rescued by Animal Rescue Kharkiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many are offered up for adoption. Credit: Alfons Cabrera via Storyful

  • Minister Roasted Over Government's 'Misleading' Defence Spending Pledge

    Stig Abell asked: "Was your government trying to con us yesterday?"

  • In Court, Donald Trump Is a Loser—and Alone

    Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastIf you were a rioter at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, you may have felt the whole world was with you—or the part of the world that supported what you did.President Trump himself had urged you to march to the Capitol Building. A crowd walked alongside you down Pennsylvania Avenue. People chanted with you about attacking Mike Pence, crashed through the police lines with you, helped you to break windows and march through the building.Af

  • ‘Inside Gaza,’ ‘Edgar Hilsenrath the Masturbator’ Among 2024 Pitch Projects at Sunny Side of the Doc

    International documentary marketplace Sunny Side of the Doc has revealed the 42 projects from 21 countries that make up the official selection for its 2024 edition. As always, the projects are topical and eclectic, ranging from Helene Lam Trong’s “Inside Gaza,” that tells the inside story of the ongoing conflict in the region; to Francois-Xavier Destors’ “Edgar …

  • Grieving families looking for answers after report alleges doctor denied life-saving transplants

    Grieving families spoke at a press conference on April 24 of their search for answers after the New York Times published an article on April 18, alleging Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr. of Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center of manipulating records to ensure select patients became ineligible for receiving transplants.

  • Nevada GOP Senate Hopeful Uses Campaign Cash to Cosplay as a Cowboy

    Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Dr. Jeff Gunter For US SenateWhen he launched his campaign for U.S. Senate in Nevada last year, Jeff Gunter presented himself as a gritty frontiersman and a diehard MAGA Republican.Gunter’s opening video depicts him stepping into a Ford F-150 pickup truck—cowboy boots and all—admiring the bucolic western landscape in a burgundy button-down as he talks about his credentials. And in case you had somehow forgotten which state’s Senate seat

  • Third man is detained in a major bribery case that involves Russia's deputy defense minister

    A third man has been detained in a bribery case involving a Russian deputy defense minister, Moscow's court service said Thursday. It said businessman Alexander Fomin is suspected of paying bribes to Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, who was detained on Wednesday, as well as Ivanov's associate, Sergei Borodin. Ivanov, an ally of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was jailed pending an investigation and trial on charges of bribery, court officials said in a statement.

  • Frontline Ukrainians Fear New Aid From U.S. Will Be a Disaster

    Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty ImagesKHARKIV, Ukraine—After months of infighting on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden has finally been able to sign off on a huge new $61 billion military aid bill for Ukraine. Delays to the bill, which got bogged down in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, were widely blamed for impacting Kyiv’s ability to defend itself from Russian advances. After its passage last week, some members of the House waved Ukrainian flags while others cheered in cele

  • UPDATE 1-UK-listed drugmaker Indivior seeks shareholder nod for US listing

    UK-listed drugmaker Indivior plans to seek shareholder approval next month for a primary listing in the United States, the company said on Thursday, which would add it to a growing list of firms leaving the London stock market. Indivior had, in February, announced its intent to shift its listing by the middle of the year to the U.S., which, it argued, reflected its growth opportunities as its proprietary treatments are U.S.-centred and U.S.-based investors account for nearly 50% of its overall shareholder base. The list of UK-based companies that have already listed in the United States includes ARM, the UK's biggest chip company, as well as building supplies firm CRH and plumbing equipment company Ferguson.

  • Scotland's powersharing deal collapses in bust-up between Greens and SNP

    The Bute House Agreement brought the Green Party into government for the first time anywhere in the UK

  • Six easy ways to lose an inch from your waist – in a week

    The calorie maths tells us that for an average-sized person to lose an inch around the middle, it would require a 4lb weight-loss – the equivalent of around 14,000 calories, or the total weekly recommended calorie intake for a woman.

  • Bogus Furry Panic Overtakes Utah School District

    Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyLast Wednesday, dozens of students skipped class to gather outside a Payson, Utah, middle school for hours and chant, “We the people, not the animals!”—a protest launched over the dramatic accusation that their classmates were running wild as “furries” and attacking other students without consequence.Much of the hysteria, however, has been blown out of proportion.Footage from the scene showed them hoisting signs declaring, “Compelled spe

  • Bristol Bears star Simi Pam admits she considered retirement amid injury woes

    Bristol Bears star Simi Pam admits she considered walking away from rugby after a serious ankle injury derailed her international dreams.

  • Before Trump’s Big Lie, There Was Trump, the Big Liar

    Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe first stages of the trial of the People of New York State vs. Donald J. Trump have been illuminating in a variety of ways. They have made it absolutely clear that this trial is not the legal non-event Republicans and drinkers of conventional wisdom-flavored Kool Aid said it was.It is not a case about “paperwork” or “bookkeeping.” It is not a bland little nothingburger of arcane, hard-to-prove white-collar crime. It is not just

  • Venezuela broke its HPV vaccine promises, and there's barely any sex ed. Experts say it's a problem

    Some of the 10 women and teenage girls who recently came to a medical clinic in eastern Venezuela for free contraceptives fidgeted a bit when a community health worker taught them how to use an IUD, condoms and birth control pills correctly. The health worker also asked what they knew about HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the world and the cause of nearly all cervical cancer. Of the 10, ages 16 to 33 — two of whom had traveled to Putucual by boat and bus — only one had learned about human papillomavirus in middle school.

  • London travel news LIVE: Euston rush-hour disruption after train hits obstruction near Watford Junction

    Disruption has hit the morning rush-hour on Thursday after a train crashed into an obstruction near Watford. Trains to and from Euston are among those affected. National Rail warns trains are having to run at reduced speeds on the line towards Milton Keynes Central.

  • Snap up John Lewis's 'excellent' heated clothes airer while it's only £75

    After selling out multiple times, this popular airer is now back in stock for a reduced price, and available with free delivery.

  • London mayor election: Sadiq Khan's lead smallest over Susan Hall since campaigns started, new poll shows

    Exclusive Savanta survey for the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London put the Labour mayor on 46 per cent, with his Tory challenger on 33 per cent, a lead of 13 points