has fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, the BBC reported on Friday, shortly before she is expected to scrap parts of his economic package in a bid to survive the market and political turmoil gripping the country.
But the response from markets was so ferocious that the Bank of England had to intervene to prevent pension funds from being caught up in the chaos, as borrowing and mortgage costs surged. At the same time the Conservative Party’s discipline has all but broken down, fractured by infighting as it struggled first to agree a way to leave the European Union and then how to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and grow the economy.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Britain’s television news channels switched to carry live footage of a British Airways plane landing at Heathrow, carrying Kwarteng.