Happy Trussiversary. It’s a year today since Liz Truss entered No. 10. One man who probably won’t be celebrating that milestone is Kwasi Kwarteng, who marked the occasion last night with a grilling on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Morgan kicked things off by blasting the Spelthorne MP for causing ‘genuine financial harm’ to many as a consequence of the mini-Budget last Autumn. Claiming that Kwarteng and Truss would ‘go down in history…as disasters in that period’, Morgan wondered out loud why the former chancellor was finding it so difficult to ‘just say sorry’.
Kwarteng said he didn’t believe his strategy in the Treasury ‘was the wrong strategy. I don’t apologise for the strategy’. Nevertheless, the former Chancellor insisted he had no trouble apologising ‘in his private life the whole time’, including the time he was, um, late picking his daughter up from nursery. No wonder the Trussites wanted those childcare reforms. Despite bullishly declaring at the start of the interview that he ‘hadn’t come here to apologise’, by the end, Kwarteng seemed, er, a little more contrite.
Like a dog with a bone, Morgan didn’t let the question drop, eventually getting the MP to admit ‘I’m sorry for the turbulence that was caused’. Morgan pressed him further, asking ‘You’re sorry for the damage it caused to British people?’ Kwarteng replied, ‘If that’s what you want me to say’ before adding ‘I’m sorry for the damage and the loss, and it was a scary time, and I’m sorry for that.’ He concluded that he had ‘accepted responsibility a long time ago, and you [Morgan] have said “why don’t you take a step further and apologise?” and I’ve said “you know, that’s fair enough”.’
Only took a dozen attempts…
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