PM Accused Of Going Awol As Bank Moves On Pensions

Liz Truss has been accused of hiding away while her tax giveaway mini-Budget causes economic turmoil, with the Bank of England forced to intervene to prevent a crisis in the UK's major pension funds.

- Andrew Woodcock, Anna Isaac, Adam Forrest 

The Bank has embarked on an estimated £65bn buy-up of bonds during what a Treasury source described to The Independent as “serious concerns about the short-term financial stability of some of the major pension funds in the UK”, and others said there were fears of mass insolvencies.

Junior Treasury minister Andrew Griffith was sent out to insist that the government would press ahead with the £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, which spooked markets when it was unveiled on Friday. But there was no sign of Ms Truss, who was last seen in public sitting on the green Commons benches alongside her chancellor for his statement.

The Bank’s intervention to calm volatile gilt markets came after the International Monetary Fund took the extraordinary step of urging the chancellor to “re-evaluate” his plans and warning they would stoke inequality.

Tory MPs said the mini-Budget had turned into a “disaster” which could cost Ms Truss the next election. One former minister told The Independent that Mr Kwarteng may be forced into a humiliating backtrack on his cut to the 45p income tax rate for high earners if it becomes clear the UK has been propelled onto a “doom path”.

Senior backbencher Simon Hoare branded the package “inept madness”, while former chancellor Kenneth Clarke said it was a “serious mistake” that should be “torn up”. MPs questioned the safety of Mr Kwarteng’s position just three weeks after his appointment, with one telling Sky News: “I predict the chancellor will get the sack and it will unravel from there.”