By Ben Kerrigan-
Kwasi Kwarteng, a longstanding ally of new prime minister Liz Truss, has landed the prestigious job of being the UK’s next chancellor.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwateng(pictured) is the government’s chief finance minister and one of the most senior members of the Cabinet. He will be responsible for setting levels of taxation and public spending across the UK, and announce changes to these each year in the annual Budget statement. He holds a post of high responsibility which commands a lot of respect. His selection for the post is an expression of the trust the prime minister places in him to deliver a highly demanding assignment.
His appointment comes at a crucial time for the UK economy, given the soaring winter energy bills facing millions of brits this winter. He replaces Nadhim Zahawi who took over from his predecessor Rishi Sunak , who was accused by Johnson loyalists as stabbing him in the back in a plot to take over the reins from the former prime minister.
With inflation at its highest rate in 40 years and the NHS braced for a winter crisis, Kwarteng will be shouldering s heavy burden from the start of his role as chancellor to provide answers to calm the raging economic storm facing Britain.
The extra bright historian and linguist, who in his Cambridge days won the University Challenge- a legendary British TV game show for student intellectuals, is determined to boost growth and tackle the cost of living crisis facing Britain.
Having attended the reputable Eton college with a scholarship , Kwarteng became the first black Conservative cabinet minister in 2021, and earned a double first from Cambridge University, and has a PhD in economic history. He is also a past winner of notoriously tough BBC quiz show University Challenge.
The ambitious politician also attended the world class Harvard University in the United States on a Kennedy Scholarship, before returning to Cambridge University to complete a PhD in economic history in 2000.
Born in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1975, the only child of Alfred K. Kwarteng and Charlotte Boaitey-Kwarteng, who emigrated from Ghana as students in the 1960s, his mother is a barrister and his father an economist in the Commonwealth Secretariat. They invested in putting him in a prep primary school, which eventually set up a brilliant education leading to politics in the end.
He worked as a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and a financial analyst at banks including JP Morgan in the City of London. His Curriculum Vitae is very impressive, he has a lot to be proud of.
Colleagues describe him as a determined and ambitious politician who likes to achieve goals.
His new role will test him at the highest level, and rewards will accompany the experience if he delivers for Liz Truss’s government.
Kwateng is known for his loyalty, he supported Boris Johnson throughout his premiership, despite the challenges, misjudgements and criticisms that accompanied partygate and the failing of the former prime minister in hiring Chris Pinchet, who had been the subject of several sexual allegations. He could have walked out like Rushi Sunak and several others who did, but he stuck by the prime minister through thick and thin.
Kwarteng was rumoured to be in line for dismissal by Boris Johnson as Business Secretary during a planned cabinet reshuffle in June 2022, after failing to spot the looming fuel crisis following the build up of Russia to invade Ukraine, and the crisis that engulfed a vital British CO2 firm in 2021. When he caught wind of the alleged plans, he was left him very upset. The rumour never materialised in the end, and he kept his post which has paved the way for this major transition in his political career.
During the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Kwarteng and Liz Truss were said to have drawn up a pact to make him Chancellor of the Exchequer if she became prime minister. That opportunity has finally come, and the man who has built respectable career over many years, has taken the chance with both hands.
The sharp intellect which has brought him this far should see him through the most important aspect of his career. His new post will give him the opportunity to show what he is truly capable of .