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Politics
Kate Plummer
Oct 14, 2022
Kwasi Kwarteng says he is ‘absolutely 100%’ not resigning as chancellor
Indy
Kwasi Kwarteng flew back from meetings in the US today, one day earlier than expected, amid rumours that there could be more government u-turns on the cards.
Kwarteng landed at around 11am this morning, after dashing out of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, to reportedly have talks with prime minister where he found out he was being sacked, according to reports.
For whatever reason, while he was in the air, people on social media became obsessed with tracking his flight back to the UK - big Big Jet TV vibes.
At one point, the Independent reports that his flight, British Airways BA292 was the most tracked flight in the world, with over 6,000 journalists, City traders, and politicos monitoring it.
Meanwhile, we learnt that Johnny Marr's drummer Jack Mitchell was one of the other passengers.
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\u201cKwasi Kwarteng on our flight. Hope he's got his laptop. Hasn't he got an economy to sort out??\u201d— Jack Mitchell (@Jack Mitchell) 1665713468
But the best thing we have to tell you, is that when the plane reached Surrey, people noticed the plane do an apparent u-turn, in the most serendipitous injection of irony that we've ever seen.
People on social media couldn't believe it:
\u201cKwasi Kwarteng\u2019s flight from Washington has already done a U-turn. \n\n#Trussonomics \n#KwartengMustGo \n#TrussOut\u201d— Steve H (@Steve H) 1665740855
\u201c\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 Kwasi Kwarteng has just U-turned over Surrey\u201d— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE) 1665740340
\u201cI don't know how to tell you this but Kwasi's plane appears to be u-turning\u201d— Matt Chorley (@Matt Chorley) 1665740572
\u201cWatching the (perhaps soon to be Ex-) Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's flight returning to Heathrow\n\nWondering if this is the first U-turn we will see him make today?\n\n#minibudget2022\n#notfitforthejob\u201d— Charlie Rome \u2764\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83d\udc9b (@Charlie Rome \u2764\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83d\udc9b) 1665740515
\u201cWatching the (perhaps soon to be Ex-) Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's flight returning to Heathrow\n\nWondering if this is the first U-turn we will see him make today?\n\n#minibudget2022\n#notfitforthejob\u201d— Charlie Rome \u2764\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83d\udc9b (@Charlie Rome \u2764\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7\ud83d\udc99\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83d\udc9b) 1665740515
\u201cNot saying this is an omen but the plane the Chancellor is believed to be on has already performed 3 u-turns\u201d— Jane Merrick (@Jane Merrick) 1665740975
The chancellor said yesterday that he was "100 per cent" staying in his job but his words have already been shown to be 100 per cent nonsense given the PM reportedly giving him the boot.
Maybe the pilot just had an excellent sense of humour.
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