play videoKwasi Kwarteng has been fired as UK's Finance Minister after six weeks in office
The BBC has reported that Britain’s finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng has been sacked from his current position. This follows a meeting with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Downing Street on Friday, October 14, 2022, the report added. Prior to the confirmation by the BBC, suggestions were rife on social media, including one by the Political Editor of the news platform; Steven Swinford on Twitter. “I'm told that Kwasi Kwarteng is being sacked as Chancellor as Liz Truss prepares to reverse the mini-Budget. "Not clear who will be replacing him,” he wrote. Kwasi Kwarteng reportedly announced among other things, a £43 billion package of unfunded tax cuts in his “mini” Budget unveiled late last month. Mr. Kwarteng’s tax-cutting announcement, made on September 23, is said to have caused panic in the financial markets, affecting the pound while increasing government borrowing costs and leading to a withdrawal of some offers for home purchase loans by lenders. He has since been under pressure to reverse his fiscal plan after it seemingly rattled markets and created an uproar among politicians. Ms. Truss and Mr. Kwarteng argued that the tax-cutting measures will promote economic growth among other things. Earlier reports suggested that the chancellor of the Exchequer abruptly left an IMF meeting in Washington DC, with international finance ministers on Friday and returned home to face a political crisis amid mounting calls for the government to scrap a package of unfunded tax cuts that have rattled financial markets.