> Kwasi Kwarteng attended a private champagne reception hours after delivering his mini-budget where hedge fund managers who would gain from a crash in the pound egged him on to commit to his plans.
> The chancellor also gave guests insights about forthcoming government spending cuts during the event, which took place at the Chelsea home of Andrew Law, a financier and Conservative Party donor, on the evening of Friday, September 23.
> The disclosure raises questions about Kwarteng’s political judgment. It will also raise concern that the event informed his decision to announce plans for even bigger tax cuts despite the market’s negative reaction to his initial plans.
> Kwarteng declared there was “more to come” in an interview on the Sunday after his mini-budget — a move that some No 10 officials blame for triggering a further fall in the pound on Monday morning.
> Sterling collapsed to its lowest level since 1985 amid market turmoil which, alongside Kwarteng’s £45 billion tax giveaway for the highest earners, benefited many of those at the drinks event.
> After the reception on Friday, at least two prominent hedge fund bosses told City associates that Kwarteng was “a useful idiot”. A senior Tory who advises business leaders said the phrase was in widespread circulation.
> Law is worth about £750 million and has donated £3.6 million to the Tories since 2004. He has acknowledged taking short positions on the pound over recent years, meaning he has profited from the currency’s decline in value.
> He invited about 30 people to his west London home for the drinks reception, including the stockbroker Howard Shore; the Swiss-born London banker Sir Henry Angest; Lord Leigh of Hurley, a corporate financier; Selva Pankaj, a merchant banker and investor; and Jake Berry, the Conservative Party chairman.
> Others present included William Salomon, a senior partner at Hansa Capital, and Andrew Dawber, director of Civitas Investment Management. The event was also attended by representatives from the property, hospitality, healthcare and education sectors.
> Guests drank wine, champagne and cocktails as they congratulated Kwarteng on the reforms he had outlined in the House of Commons.
> According to a source, the ambience was “very, very positive”. Another said guests explicitly told Kwarteng to “double down” — an approach from which some stood to make enormous profits.
> Two sources say Kwarteng described the Friday as a “great day for freedom”. A third said: “He was high on adrenaline. His big thing was: ‘Look, we’re not going to do stuff incrementally. We really believe in this stuff and that’s what we’re going to do.’ ”
> Kwarteng is also said to have warned those present of austerity-style budget cuts to come. A source said: “He wanted to give an unadulterated message of ‘growth, growth, growth’, and that’s why he didn’t talk about savings, because otherwise the [news] agenda would have been all about savings — ‘where will you cut? What will you cut? Blah blah blah’ — they’re fully aware they have to make savings.”
> The source added that Kwarteng appeared tired but pleased in a convivial atmosphere.
> After the mini-budget, Treasury sources briefed national media organisations that Kwarteng had crossed the road and had a pint with officials, but they declined to volunteer details of the event he subsequently attended. As it was a party, officials would not be required to disclose it on ministerial transparency returns.
> The chancellor went on to tell the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he would slash more taxes, and confirmed he would neither bring forward his November budget nor ask the Office of Budget Responsibility to publish its forecasts of his plans.
> His actions led the Bank of England to take action — at a cost of £65 billion — to calm the markets and prevent a meltdown in the UK pensions sector.
> A source who attended the Law drinks party said Kwarteng seemed surprised by the reaction of the markets. “I think maybe he didn’t see it coming,” he said.
> Allies of the chancellor have dismissed claims that his proximity to hedge fund managers has influenced his decision-making in office.
> Last week, it was revealed that during the leadership contest he privately dined with Crispin Odey, a hedge fund investor and Kwarteng’s former boss, who has since said that bets against UK government bonds were the “gifts that keep on giving”.
> Odey, a prominent Tory donor who also gave £870,000 to pro-Brexit campaign groups, founded the hedge fund Odey Asset Management, where Kwarteng worked before entering politics.
>
> The latest revelations will heap more pressure on the chancellor, who was the co-author with Liz Truss of a financial package that has seen the Conservative Party fall to its lowest rating in the polls since the 1990s. No 10 insisted last week that he will not resign.
> Tory officials confirmed that Kwarteng attended the gathering at Law’s home, which was arranged by the Conservative Party’s campaign headquarters, for an hour to talk through his mini-budget plans, giving a five-minute speech.
> A source close to the chancellor said: “Any suggestion attendees had access to privileged information is total nonsense. The Growth Plan [published earlier that day] included a commitment to review our tax code to make it simpler, better for families and more pro-growth. The government’s ambitions on lowering the tax burden are hardly a state secret.”
Article by: Tim Shipman, Oliver Shah and Gabriel Pogrund
Saturday October 01 2022, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
So he has intentionally sold out his country?
It’s like peeling an onion that’s rotting from the inside out, the more layers you remove the shittier it gets.
And it makes you cry.
Remember; it’s not corruption, and it is not bribery. It’s lobbying, it’s totally above board, and totally legal.
Now bugger off you peasants and stop questioning your betters!
[removed]
He might as well just come out and tell us what he really thinks and feels, him pretending to care just does not work and he has already been caught out after two weeks on the job. I’d prefer if he just said “I don’t care about you and plan to make as much profit as I can, all at the expense of the economy.” Either that or we bring back the stocks and place him in Trafalgar Square for all to see, with plenty of rotten fruit and vegetables on hand.
Setting up Kwasi to take the fall
I thought this was a ridiculous conspiracy theory, but is this how cheap and corrupt we’ve become, wow.
It’s sick to think he’s wiped out the uk for a generation and is having glasses raised by those he did it for. I can tolerate career nobodies and useless politicians, it’s hard to tolerate evil ones…
How is this new or different from say **George Osborne** as chancellor? It’s not.
No point in personalising any of this. The more you waste time posing this as an issue of anybody as bad or an individual “villain”, the more there is room for this systemic failure to continue,
Forget the pantomime-dummy-bashing and focus on the real issues, which are about poltiical systems and classes. Not individual.
The conservative are the most anti British institute in the UK at the moment. Nothing they’ve done has improved our standing, culture or literally anything “British” – its embarrassing we’re getting pimped out to these vampires in finance or whomever is the highest bidder.
Anyone who votes for these corrupt bastards in the next GE wants their head testing.
This:
Aladeen: I now know that on the outside, I am a bit of a cocksucker…
Nadal: Yeah!
Aladeen: But deep down…I’m nice.
Nadal: Not really.
Aladeen: Yes I am! I’m like mafrum: hard and spiky on the outside, but soft and really mushy on the in.
Nadal: You’re not like mafrum at all! You’re like an onion! An outer layer of cocksucker, and when you peel it away, there is ten more layers of cocksucker underneath!
[deleted]
Is this a joke? How is this open corruption allowed? Is he governing for the 0.1%?
This is fucking criminal, how is this cunt getting away with this, fucking going down the shitter at this rate
16 comments
> Kwasi Kwarteng attended a private champagne reception hours after delivering his mini-budget where hedge fund managers who would gain from a crash in the pound egged him on to commit to his plans.
> The chancellor also gave guests insights about forthcoming government spending cuts during the event, which took place at the Chelsea home of Andrew Law, a financier and Conservative Party donor, on the evening of Friday, September 23.
> The disclosure raises questions about Kwarteng’s political judgment. It will also raise concern that the event informed his decision to announce plans for even bigger tax cuts despite the market’s negative reaction to his initial plans.
> Kwarteng declared there was “more to come” in an interview on the Sunday after his mini-budget — a move that some No 10 officials blame for triggering a further fall in the pound on Monday morning.
> Sterling collapsed to its lowest level since 1985 amid market turmoil which, alongside Kwarteng’s £45 billion tax giveaway for the highest earners, benefited many of those at the drinks event.
> After the reception on Friday, at least two prominent hedge fund bosses told City associates that Kwarteng was “a useful idiot”. A senior Tory who advises business leaders said the phrase was in widespread circulation.
> Law is worth about £750 million and has donated £3.6 million to the Tories since 2004. He has acknowledged taking short positions on the pound over recent years, meaning he has profited from the currency’s decline in value.
> He invited about 30 people to his west London home for the drinks reception, including the stockbroker Howard Shore; the Swiss-born London banker Sir Henry Angest; Lord Leigh of Hurley, a corporate financier; Selva Pankaj, a merchant banker and investor; and Jake Berry, the Conservative Party chairman.
> Others present included William Salomon, a senior partner at Hansa Capital, and Andrew Dawber, director of Civitas Investment Management. The event was also attended by representatives from the property, hospitality, healthcare and education sectors.
> Guests drank wine, champagne and cocktails as they congratulated Kwarteng on the reforms he had outlined in the House of Commons.
> According to a source, the ambience was “very, very positive”. Another said guests explicitly told Kwarteng to “double down” — an approach from which some stood to make enormous profits.
> Two sources say Kwarteng described the Friday as a “great day for freedom”. A third said: “He was high on adrenaline. His big thing was: ‘Look, we’re not going to do stuff incrementally. We really believe in this stuff and that’s what we’re going to do.’ ”
> Kwarteng is also said to have warned those present of austerity-style budget cuts to come. A source said: “He wanted to give an unadulterated message of ‘growth, growth, growth’, and that’s why he didn’t talk about savings, because otherwise the [news] agenda would have been all about savings — ‘where will you cut? What will you cut? Blah blah blah’ — they’re fully aware they have to make savings.”
> The source added that Kwarteng appeared tired but pleased in a convivial atmosphere.
> After the mini-budget, Treasury sources briefed national media organisations that Kwarteng had crossed the road and had a pint with officials, but they declined to volunteer details of the event he subsequently attended. As it was a party, officials would not be required to disclose it on ministerial transparency returns.
> The chancellor went on to tell the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he would slash more taxes, and confirmed he would neither bring forward his November budget nor ask the Office of Budget Responsibility to publish its forecasts of his plans.
> His actions led the Bank of England to take action — at a cost of £65 billion — to calm the markets and prevent a meltdown in the UK pensions sector.
> A source who attended the Law drinks party said Kwarteng seemed surprised by the reaction of the markets. “I think maybe he didn’t see it coming,” he said.
> Allies of the chancellor have dismissed claims that his proximity to hedge fund managers has influenced his decision-making in office.
> Last week, it was revealed that during the leadership contest he privately dined with Crispin Odey, a hedge fund investor and Kwarteng’s former boss, who has since said that bets against UK government bonds were the “gifts that keep on giving”.
> Odey, a prominent Tory donor who also gave £870,000 to pro-Brexit campaign groups, founded the hedge fund Odey Asset Management, where Kwarteng worked before entering politics.
>
> The latest revelations will heap more pressure on the chancellor, who was the co-author with Liz Truss of a financial package that has seen the Conservative Party fall to its lowest rating in the polls since the 1990s. No 10 insisted last week that he will not resign.
> Tory officials confirmed that Kwarteng attended the gathering at Law’s home, which was arranged by the Conservative Party’s campaign headquarters, for an hour to talk through his mini-budget plans, giving a five-minute speech.
> A source close to the chancellor said: “Any suggestion attendees had access to privileged information is total nonsense. The Growth Plan [published earlier that day] included a commitment to review our tax code to make it simpler, better for families and more pro-growth. The government’s ambitions on lowering the tax burden are hardly a state secret.”
Article by: Tim Shipman, Oliver Shah and Gabriel Pogrund
Saturday October 01 2022, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
So he has intentionally sold out his country?
It’s like peeling an onion that’s rotting from the inside out, the more layers you remove the shittier it gets.
And it makes you cry.
Remember; it’s not corruption, and it is not bribery. It’s lobbying, it’s totally above board, and totally legal.
Now bugger off you peasants and stop questioning your betters!
[removed]
He might as well just come out and tell us what he really thinks and feels, him pretending to care just does not work and he has already been caught out after two weeks on the job. I’d prefer if he just said “I don’t care about you and plan to make as much profit as I can, all at the expense of the economy.” Either that or we bring back the stocks and place him in Trafalgar Square for all to see, with plenty of rotten fruit and vegetables on hand.
Setting up Kwasi to take the fall
I thought this was a ridiculous conspiracy theory, but is this how cheap and corrupt we’ve become, wow.
It’s sick to think he’s wiped out the uk for a generation and is having glasses raised by those he did it for. I can tolerate career nobodies and useless politicians, it’s hard to tolerate evil ones…
How is this new or different from say **George Osborne** as chancellor? It’s not.
No point in personalising any of this. The more you waste time posing this as an issue of anybody as bad or an individual “villain”, the more there is room for this systemic failure to continue,
Forget the pantomime-dummy-bashing and focus on the real issues, which are about poltiical systems and classes. Not individual.
The conservative are the most anti British institute in the UK at the moment. Nothing they’ve done has improved our standing, culture or literally anything “British” – its embarrassing we’re getting pimped out to these vampires in finance or whomever is the highest bidder.
Anyone who votes for these corrupt bastards in the next GE wants their head testing.
This:
Aladeen: I now know that on the outside, I am a bit of a cocksucker…
Nadal: Yeah!
Aladeen: But deep down…I’m nice.
Nadal: Not really.
Aladeen: Yes I am! I’m like mafrum: hard and spiky on the outside, but soft and really mushy on the in.
Nadal: You’re not like mafrum at all! You’re like an onion! An outer layer of cocksucker, and when you peel it away, there is ten more layers of cocksucker underneath!
[deleted]
Is this a joke? How is this open corruption allowed? Is he governing for the 0.1%?
This is fucking criminal, how is this cunt getting away with this, fucking going down the shitter at this rate