British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced on Monday into a humiliating U-turn after less than a month in power, reversing a cut to the highest rate of income tax that helped spark turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party.
Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the decision to scrap the top rate tax cut had been taken with “some humility and contrition.” Read more: UK’s Prime Minister Liz Truss sticks by economic plan as her party worries Truss and Kwarteng announced a new “growth plan” on Sept.
23 that would cut taxes and regulation, funded by vast government borrowing, to snap the economy out of years of stagnant growth.
But the plan triggered a crisis of investor confidence in the government, hammering the value of the pound and government bond prices and jolting global markets to such an extent that the Bank of England had to intervene with a 65 billion pound ($73 billion) program to shore up markets.