British prime minister fires top economic official in ruthless response to 'mini-budget' backlash
British Prime Minister Liz Truss will move to reshape her government’s economic policy after firing Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng and dropping key parts of her economic plan in response to market panic caused by the proposed "mini-budget." "After the fallout from the mini-budget, the Prime Minister needed to take drastic action to calm the markets and save her job," Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital. "Sacking the architect of the policy, while brutal, was the most logical way to restore confidence and give her some breathing space to regroup politically." "Once [Truss] reached that conclusion it was only a matter of time before she acted on it, as had she not, it would now be her head on the platter rather than his," Mendoza added. The British pound dropped sharply after the government announced Kwarteng’s "mini-budget," a series of cuts to taxes intended to spur growth and fight record inflation.The program proved contentious, and Kwarteng did not explain how the government planned to fund the cuts and offset the costs. "We need a new approach for a new era, focused on growth," Kwarteng told lawmakers in the House of Commons when he introduced the plan, which he argued would provide short-term help for homes and businesses in the face of spiking energy costs while trying to increase tax revenues in the coming years. FILE - Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng arrives in Downing Street in London, on Sept.