Kwasi Kwarteng accused of 'living in parallel universe' for economy comments

Kwasi Kwarteng has been accused of "living in a parallel universe" after he refused to apologise for mucking up the economy with Liz Truss.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, the former chancellor who was responsible for the disastrous mini-budget last Autumn, played down the impact of his interventions, instead saying "what was done was done".

I’m not going to apologise,” he said.

“I’ve said very clearly, you know, what was done was done, but I don’t believe that politicians are endlessly, you know, apologising for everything that has gone in the past. I’m looking forward.”

However he admitted "we could have done things differently".

Asked whether he felt people’s anger about crippling mortgage rates, he said “no” and said interest rates were high in other places in the world not impacted by the mini-budget.

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He added: “I know the media will want to go to a world where people are being angry and outrage ... but actually, what I found is that some people will come up to people and say, ‘I’m very angry, I’m very upset.’ You get that.

“I’m very struck, actually, by the fact that people are ‘you tried your best. We understand what you were trying to do. It was difficult.’”

Last September, Kwarteng announced the biggest raft of tax cuts for half a century. This shook the financial markets, and crashed the pound. He resigned, then prime minister Liz Truss quickly followed suit and we are still trying to clean up all this economic mess they left us in.

With that in mind, Carol Vorderman spoke for the nation when she asked: "Is Kwasi Kwarteng living in a parallel universe?"

In the interview, Kwarteng also said he would still like to see lower taxes in the UK, but admitted it would have to be done "in a careful way".

"I don't think you can just simply rip the doors off and say 'right, this is what we're doing,'" he said.

"I accept responsibility for a turbulent time," he also said. "I think we tried to do too much too quickly, and Liz Truss and myself paid the price for that."

At least Kwarteng is pleased with himself, even if literally no-one else is.

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