FOLLOWING his humiliating U-Turn in the small hours of yesterday morning, when Chancellor Kwazi Kwarteng’s announced the abolition of the 45p rate of tax for the very rich was being reversed, he made his speech to the Tory Party Conference in Birmingham yesterday afternoon.
He announced new laws to outlaw ‘pernicious strikes’.
Kwarteng opened his speech with: ‘What a day, its been tough, no more distractions. Our growth plan set out 10 days ago was focused entirely on growth.
‘I know the plan put forward 10 days ago caused turbulance, but we couldn’t simply do nothing. I make here an iron-clad commitment to fiscal discipline,’ he said.
He then launched his diatribe against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, claiming: ‘the high cost of energy’ is ‘driven by Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine … ‘there have been devastating price hikes unleashed by Vladimir Putin… we will deal with the short term shocks due to Putin.’
He warned that the Tory government ‘will liberalise planning zones,’ claiming that ‘too often regulation holds Britain back… ‘We will review, repeal or replace retained EU law holding us back.’
He then launched a furious attack on the trade unions, claiming: ‘Pernicious strike action holds back the British economy.’
And he issued a message stating: ‘We will bring in new legislation to stop strike action derailing our daily lives.’
He concluded by announcing: ‘We will reverse the rise in corporation tax, ensuring we have the lowest rate in the G20.
Earlier, former Tory minister Michael Gove had signalled that he would have voted against the budget and it was clear that the Tories would face defeat in the House of Commons if they proceeded with their ‘mini-budget.
Gove said the government’s U-turn was a bad look not just for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng but for PM Liz Truss too.
‘I think she’s recognised, as we all do in politics, that if you bite off just that little bit more than you can chew, then the right thing to do is to extract the gobstopper as it were, and then get on with the job.’
He added the newly installed pair should be given time to ‘develop their package’ of cuts, but acknowledged criticism about the mini-budget benefitting mainly the wealthy.
Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries suggested Truss should call an election, saying there is ‘widespread dismay’ in the Tory Party about the Truss leadership. ‘No one asked for this,’ she said, adding: ‘If Liz wants a whole new mandate, she must take it to the country.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was ‘obvious’ the government could not get the cut through the House of Commons and it had been forced into the U-turn.
Instead of demanding that Truss should quit or call a general election, Reeves urged the government to ‘get a grip’.
Far from calling on the Tories to ‘get a grip’, the News Line demands that the TUC calls a general strike to bring them down and kick them out now!
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