Kwasi Kwarteng has the prime minister’s full confidence and can persist with his progress plan, a minister has advised Sky News.
Greg Hands, the worldwide commerce minister, stated: “I do know the prime minister’s acquired whole confidence in Kwasi Kwarteng.
“I’ve worked very closely with Kwasi, he is an incredibly capable person, a very, very bright person who makes good judgement calls.
“And I’ve absolute confidence in Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer.”
Mr Hands refused to be drawn on stories the chancellor and Prime Minister Liz Truss are set to U-turn on key elements of the mini-budget that was introduced final month and has triggered market turmoil since.
He repeatedly insisted the general public must wait till Mr Kwarteng units out particulars of how the plans will likely be paid for on 31 October, when he units out his medium-term fiscal plan and the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes its forecast.
The chancellor has been on the IMF assembly in Washington DC this week however left a day early to reach again within the UK as we speak.
But Mr Hands insisted it’s “not unusual” for ministers to return from worldwide visits a day early and stated he’s returning to have discussions with colleagues and to organize for the medium-term fiscal plan on 31 October.
He additionally went with the federal government line that Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng have been sticking to as he stated the turmoil seen over the previous few weeks can also be being seen world wide as a result of Vladimir Putin’s struggle in Ukraine and because the world bounces again from the pandemic.
Reports in a single day stated some Tory MPs are able to again Rishi Sunak to interchange Ms Truss as PM, with Penny Mordaunt as chancellor.
But Mr Hands, who supported Mr Sunak within the Tory management marketing campaign, rubbished that notion, saying he “does not recognise that story at all”.
He added that he spoke to Ms Mordaunt yesterday and can be “very surprised” if that was true.
“What we do need to do is the Conservative Party does need to unite behind our prime minister,” he added.
“She was our choice for the Conservative Party just a few weeks ago. We need to remain united, get together behind Liz Truss. Kwasi Kwarteng is our team.”
Source: information.sky.com”