Kwasi Kwarteng scraps 45p tax cut: What he planned to say today vs what he actually said

Mr Kwarteng planned to tell the Party Conference: “We must stay the course. I am confident our plan is the right one”.

But speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, he said: “On the 45p rate. It’s very simple. 

“We talked to lots and lots of people up and down the country, we talked to lots of not only colleagues, MP colleagues, but also people, our voters, constituents, crucially people in the country, and I felt that the 45p rate was a huge distraction on what was a very strong set of measures.”

The Chancellor planned to pledge an “iron-clad commitment to fiscal discipline” in an attempt to reassure the markets.

However, he told LBC Radio on Monday morning shortly after the major U-turn announcement: “I think there was a whole range of things that were going on in the gilt market.”

He said the turbulence was triggered by interest rates going up across the world, particularly in the US, which saw bond prices going down, forcing the Bank of England intervention.

“That was a different set of issues from the tax measures that we announced in the mini-budget,” he added.

Finally, he planned to say that his growth plan is necessary to avoid “slow, managed decline” – and to add that he won’t accept it is Britain’s destiny to fall into middle income status.

Instead, Mr Kwarteng declined to repeat his pledge that there is “more to come” with tax cuts on Monday morning, saying: “There will be no tax cuts ahead of a budget.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Kwarteng did not rule out a new era of austerity to pay for tax cuts.

“You will see what our spending plans are in the medium-term fiscal plan but I’m not going to be drawn into that.”

He stressed that the 45p rate “was one element of a very comprehensive plan” and said it “even fiscally wasn’t the most significant by any means”.