Kwasi Kwarteng

The business secretary's delicate political manoeuvring has served him well, including backing Liz Truss. But, asks Tom Peck, is ideological fantasy about ...

How Truss and Sunak plan to keep the lights on is a subject on which we all remain in the dark. That’s the sort of thing that should infuriate a noble politician trying to do the right thing. Perhaps most intriguingly, Kwarteng is very much into renewable energy, and has been determined for some time to end the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels. If he indeed is given the role, from his first day in the job, quite possibly to the last, there will be only one issue that dominates, and that will be soaring inflation caused by the energy crisis. It is almost impossible to count up the number of times Kwarteng has been made to look ridiculous, but then it is almost impossible to count the number of other cabinet ministers to whom the same has happened. His career in Westminster began with a maiden speech in 2010, in which he demanded Labour apologise for the financial crash of 2008. Kwarteng backed Leave in the EU referendum, though on a personal note, I cannot recall any role whatsoever that he may have had in the campaign. Kwarteng wandered on to the news channels to launch the best defence he could manage of the most appalling breach of standards in years. He hitched his wagons to the The Truss/Kwarteng axis will also almost certainly find themselves engaged in the struggle between ideological fantasy and real life. As one of the most impossibly highly self-regarding men in all of Westminster, one suspects Kwarteng does not consider Sky News’s Kay Burley (to take one random example) to be his intellectual superior. The most notable occasion came in November of last year, when Johnson placed his MPs under a three-line whip, in order to force them to vote to, in effect, save Owen Paterson but disgrace themselves in the process.

The former Eton schoolboy rejects 'identity politics'. Born ...

“It’s as if being from a particular background gives a politician a God-given right to speak on behalf of every single person from that background,” he wrote. “But I want to provide reassurance that this will be done in a fiscally responsible way. He said the UK does not need “excessive fiscal tightening”, pointing to the country’s ratio of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) compared with other major economies. Upon his return to the UK, he earned a PhD in economic history from Cambridge. The MP was regarded as a rising star within the Tory party and in 2017 was appointed parliamentary private secretary to the chancellor at the time, Philip Hammond. Ms Truss travelled to Aberdeenshire early on Tuesday where the monarch, 96, asked her to form a new government.

The Eton, Cambridge and Harvard-educated man, now 47 and set to become chancellor, first made his name with a column in The Telegraph.

It showed that Britain had forgotten its former global connections, resulting in a “parochialism coupled with an ignorance of British history” which would result, he warned, “in the eventual dissolution [of the UK]”. However, in his columns, he turned his fire on proponents of multiculturalism and political correctness. They offered value of a sort as “a place for reflective thought, like the monasteries of the Middle Ages,” but were only really popular as a way of proving one’s smarts. Nevertheless, Mr Kwarteng was not a defender of high culture himself. is the ideal training ground for military life”. And yet they were retained and seemed to think, like some children at school, that their crimes would never be discovered. Kwarteng’s scepticism of higher education is not the only position that Tory MPs might consider ahead of their time. In today’s climate, it’s no use telling an employer that one is eminently qualified for a job without some proof, some scrap of paper which conveys a magical authority.” “Men who were clearly an embarrassment to the party should have been sacked. On at least one issue, however, Mr Kwarteng has clearly come to accept the views of the experts. As [Mr Kwarteng](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/kwasi-kwarteng-rein-green-profits-energy-price-cap-set-soar/), universities were not just a waste of time for those hoping to make lots of money but “a trick of the mind”.

Plus, Liz Truss considers freezing energy bills as she promises to announce a package to tackle surging costs.

[Purchase a Print subscription for 11,12 € per week You will be billed 107,91 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_uk3m?segmentId=461cfe95-f454-6e0b-9f7b-0800950bef25&utm_us=JJIBAX&utm_eu=WWIBEAX&utm_ca=JJIBAZ&utm_as=FIBAZ&ft-content-uuid=048accf2-9184-4ea9-abdc-bacb86c04239) [Purchase a Digital subscription for 6,64 € per week You will be billed 39 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_digital?ft-content-uuid=048accf2-9184-4ea9-abdc-bacb86c04239) [Purchase a Trial subscription for 1 € for 4 weeks You will be billed 65 € per month after the trial ends](/signup?offerId=41218b9e-c8ae-c934-43ad-71b13fcb4465&ft-content-uuid=048accf2-9184-4ea9-abdc-bacb86c04239)

The Business Secretary in Boris Johnson's government is tipped to replace Nadhim Zahawi as Chancellor if Liz Truss becomes Prime Minister.

[Boris Johnson](/topic/boris-johnson)’s 10 Downing Street successor faces a [major challenge to bring the cost of living crisis](/news/politics/liz-truss-vs-rishi-sunak-policies-of-prime-minister-candidates-compared-where-they-stand-on-key-issues-3825558) under control. He is a close ally of Liz Truss and has been a key supporter of hers in the 2022 Conservative Leadership race. When he became BEIS Secretary, he also became the first black person in UK history to run a government department. He went on to study classics and history at the University of Cambridge and was part of a team that won the BBC’s University Challenge in 1995. In 2010, he became MP for Spelthorne after the retirement of previous incumbent David Wilshire - a Tory MP who was mired in the Parliamentary expenses scandal. So, who is he - and what has he said he would do in a Truss government?

The business secretary's delicate political manoeuvring has served him well, including backing Liz Truss. But, asks Tom Peck, is ideological fantasy about ...