This week, controversial British Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng retired from politics, leading to the next general election, which must be held by January 28, 2025, but could be held this year. announced his decision not to run for office.
Mr Kwarteng, 48, has been the MP for Spelthorne in Surrey since 2010 and has also served as a senior government minister. He will be remembered most for the financial turmoil he caused during his 38 days as finance minister in 2022.
“Yesterday I informed the president of the association of my decision…” he wrote to X. “It has been a privilege to serve the residents of Spelthorne since 2010 and I intend to continue to do so for the remainder of my term on council.”
His post was met with a mix of ridicule and criticism from commentators and left-wing politicians, including a satirical celebration of his success in “destroying the economy” of the country in less than three weeks. Ta.
Who is Kwasi Kwarteng?
Kwarteng's election to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Spelthorn in the 2010 UK general election coincided with the party's return to power after 13 years in Labor government.
London-born Mr Kwarteng had just turned 35 when then-Tory leader David Cameron became prime minister in a Conservative-led coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and his future looked bright.
But apart from being born to highly qualified immigrant parents from Ghana (his father is an economist, his mother a lawyer), Kwarteng has a resume typical of many Conservative politicians. He arrived at the House of Commons at Westminster.
Indeed, like many who have held high positions in Conservative governments before him, he was educated at the elite private school Eton College, attended on a scholarship, and then at Cambridge University. He then spent one year as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University, after which he returned to Cambridge and earned a PhD in economic history in 2000.
Ten years later, after working as a financial analyst for the City of London and a columnist for the right-wing Telegraph newspaper, Mr Kwarteng, who has been married to lawyer Harriet Edwards since 2019, has been elected as one of the oldest MPs. Parliament of the World.
Why was his tenure as prime minister so short and controversial?
By the time he was elected Prime Minister by then Prime Minister Liz Truss in September 2022, Mr Kwarteng, the first black Briton to hold this prestigious office, had also demonstrated his talents in other ministerial roles. Ta. Under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
But his time at the helm of the nation's finances took a disastrous turn when the free-market champion tabled a mini-budget in parliament that included 45 billion pounds ($56.85 billion) of unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy. Financial markets were thrown into turmoil. Go into a meltdown.
Tim Bale, a political science professor at Queen Mary University of London, said Mr Kwarteng's plan would “slump the pound, put pressure on pension funds, cause interest rates to soar and leave mortgage holders far more burdened than before.” It went on to shatter the Conservative Party's reputation for economic ability.” ”.
As a result, Truss, the 2010 Conservative candidate, was sacked as prime minister just 38 days after he was appointed.
When Mr Kwarteng was replaced as Prime Minister by Jeremy Hunt, most of his predecessor's mini-Budgets were canceled, but the damage to Mr Truss' reputation proved politically fatal. The crisis put her on the sword after just 44 days in office, making Ms Truss her shortest-serving prime minister and Mr Kwarteng one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in British political history.
How did people react to his decision to resign from Congress?
Mr Kwarteng was likely aware that his announcement on I chose that.
However, that did not stop clashes in other regions, with opposition politicians quickly recalling Kwarteng's time as prime minister in 2022.
Opposition Labor Party MP Jess Phillips was scathing.
“Kwasi Kwarteng made everyone's mortgages go up and his tenure as Prime Minister was a dangerous disgrace,” she wrote in X.
Other Brits on social media have similarly ridiculed, including author Otto English, who posted on X: And I believe his legacy will live on for decades to come. After all, not many people can claim to have destroyed the economy of a major economy in less than three weeks. ”
Is Kwarteng the only Conservative MP to announce his resignation at the next election?
Far from it. Despite this, Mr Kwarteng, who remains widely admired for his intelligence, is just one of more than 50 Conservative MPs who have decided to bail out at the next UK general election.
According to Professor Bale, many current MPs are acutely aware of “which way the wind is blowing'' after recent opinion polls show that the opposition Labor Party will sweep away the Conservative Party in the election.
“Many of them prefer to jump in before voters push them. It's easier on their egos and means they get a head start on the post-Westminster job market, which many think It's not that big,” Vail said.
He added: “Being in opposition in the British political system is a pretty thankless job. You have virtually no influence over policy, and until you come close to winning again, the journalists who always take you out to lunch are in jeopardy. “They lose interest in policy,” he added. Whatever you have to say. ”
