When Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng entered Downing Street, laser focus was not only applied to them, but also to the free market think tanks they had worked with over the years. This evening, Kwarteng paid a visit to two of them, as the Institute of Economic Affairs and The Taxpayers’ Alliance hosted the Chancellor at Conservative party conference for one-on-one conversations.
Similar to his speech yesterday, Kwarteng used the opportunity to try to take some heat out of his mini-Budget. When asked if market reaction was part of the Treasury orthodoxy he and Truss had been taking aim against for weeks, he shook his head and pointed to the ‘global context’ instead. He had some extremely kind works for the Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey – another institution the Truss government has been picking fights with. ‘I think he’s a very fine governor,’ Kwarteng insisted: ‘I think we’ve got to let him do his job.’
Having worked at the IEA for four years, this was the most enthusiastic I’ve seen the ThinkTent about a Chancellor
Perhaps most notably, the Chancellor iterated several times that he is sticking to the 2021 comprehensive spending review, and will be working off it when it comes time for his medium-term fiscal plan announcements on 23 November.
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