NEVERMIND Emmerdale, theres an even better soap-opera taking place in 10 Downing Street, and one the lead characters has just been ruthlessly killed off in a shock move by Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Dimwit Kwasi Kwarteng, who broke the British economy has been sacked after less than six weeks in the job as the government’s massive tax cuts sparked financial market turmoil.
His sacking makes Kwarteng Britain’s shortest serving chancellor since 1970, and his successor would be the UK’s fourth finance minister in as many months as the nation grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.
Kwarteng paid the price for the chaos unleashed by his mini-budget as he flew back to London to be dramatically sacked by Liz Truss.
The Chancellor cut short his attendance at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting in Washington to be told of his fate in a brief meeting with the Prime Minister.
In a letter to Ms Truss posted on social media, Mr Kwarteng said: “You have asked me to stand aside as your Chancellor. I have accepted.”
He said her “vision of optimism, growth and change was right” and pledged to support her from the backbenches.
Downing Street said former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt would be Mr Kwarteng’s replacement, a move likely to signal a major shift in policy direction.
A more centrist figure, Mr Hunt is unlikely to share Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss’s ideological free market commitment to tax cuts.