An historic mini-budget in terms of benefiting those on high incomes, but one that also brings Conservative economic competence into question
Just two week into her new premiership, Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced one of the most controversial fiscal events in British political history.
The new government’s plans to borrow to fund tax cuts, has since sent the pound crashing against the dollar and raised the cost of borrowing substantially.
The budget, however, is not merely controversial due to its lack of prudence, but also in terms of who it has benefited.
Amidst a cost of living crisis, the government’s decision to remove the top rate of tax and scrap the cap on banker’s bonuses has been criticised heavily by economists, campaigners and politicians across the political spectrum, and is said to be a source of disquiet for many Conservative MPs, who are worried this fiscal event will leave the Conservatives looking both incompetent and out of touch.
Numerous news outlets have covered our reaction to the planned scrapping of the bonus cap, as well as our comments on the wider budget. We have criticised the change to bankers bonuses suggesting it could increase risk in the sector, as well as unnecessarily boosting bonuses when they have already rocketed since the pandemic.
Our comment has been included in numerous articles by the Guardian, the Daily Mail, Huffington Post, and our Director Luke Hildyard has been interviewed discussing the issue on broadcast outlets including GB News and BBC News.
Luke Hildyard discussing the scrapping of the banker bonus cap on BBC News