Liz Truss' former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to leave Parliament at next election

Liz Truss's former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has announced he will leave Parliament at the next election.

Mr Kwarteng, who represents Spelthorne, in Surrey, said he had told his constituency association on Monday that he would not fight the election.

He tweeted: “It has been an honour to serve the residents of Spelthorne since 2010, and I shall continue to do so for the remainder of my time in Parliament.”

His seat has generally been a safe Conservative one, returning a Labour MP only once in more than 100 years, and Mr Kwarteng secured a majority of 18,393 at the last election.

More than 80 MPs have announced they will leave Parliament at the next election - more than the 74 who retired in 2019, including more than 50 Conservatives or former Conservatives.

Coming from the right of the Tory Party, Mr Kwarteng served as chancellor under Ms Truss' short-lived, 44-day premiership in late 2022 before he was sacked.

His 38-day tenure made him the second shortest-serving chancellor behind Iain Macleod, who died a month after taking office in 1970.

Mr Kwarteng's contentious "mini-budget" triggered turbulance in the financial markets and sparked an economic and political crisis that ultimately led to Ms Truss' resignation as prime minister.

The announcement sent the pound tumbling, forcing the Bank of England’s intervention and pushing up mortgage rates.

Using more than £70 billion of increased borrowing, he set out a package which included abolishing the top rate of income tax for the highest earners and axing the cap on bankers’ bonuses, on top of a massively expensive energy support package.

Mr Kwarteng had hoped as chancellor to oversee a “Big Bang 2.0” – a reference to Margaret Thatcher’s 1986 policies which kicked off a massive change in the City of London.

He later admitted he “got carried away” during his brief stint as chancellor and said Ms truss' government “blew it” as "there was no tactical subtlety whatsoever".

“My biggest regret is we weren’t tactically astute and we were too impatient. There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it,” he previously told the Financial Times.

Since leaving office, he has been offered a part-time role as an adviser to Australian mining company Fortescue Future industries, involving two days per week working in the company’s green energy business.

He has also been a regular guest on GB News, receiving £1,000 per appearance on the channel.

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