PM defends Chancellor’s 'drinks evening with financiers' after mini-Budget
2 October 2022, 12:32 | Updated: 2 October 2022, 12:34
Liz Truss has defended Kwasi Kwarteng after reports emerged he attended a champagne and cocktail reception with hedge fund bosses who stood to gain from the collapse in Sterling hours after his mini-budget.
Mr Kwarteng went to the gathering at a financier’s Chelsea home on September 23, according to the Sunday Times.
He is reported to have been ‘egged on’ to commit to his plan for £45bn of unfunded tax cuts.
The PM defended Mr Kwarteng today saying: “He meets business people all the time, that’s his job.”
Asked whether it would have been better for him not to have attended, Ms Truss said: “I get up every morning as Prime Minister thinking how can we make our country more successful, how can we reassure people, how can we help people get through these very difficult times and we do face difficult times.
“And that’s what I’m focused on. That’s what the Chancellor is focused on and that is what the whole Cabinet is focused on.”
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Conservative donors who attended the champagne reception with the Chancellor after his mini-budget should be "lauded", the party chairman has said.
Jake Berry told Sky: "We often have drinks receptions for donors in the Conservative Party and in fact these people should be lauded because we don't have public funding of political parties and these are people who go out and make money and donate to political parties in the same way as they do for the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats."
He said the event had not been for hedge fund managers, although there was at least one in attendance, but instead had been for "Britain's leading entrepreneurs" as part of the "normal drumbeat" of party fundraising events.
Mr Berry added that he thought the Chancellor himself had been drinking a soft drink rather than champagne.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: “While struggling homeowners saw their mortgage bills spiral, it seems the Chancellor was sipping champagne with hedge fund managers profiting from the falling pound.
“How out of touch can you get? We need an official inquiry into this now.”
A source close to the Chancellor dismissed any suggestion of impropriety regarding his attendance at the reception.
“Any suggestion attendees had access to privileged information is total nonsense,” the source said.
