Drinking champagne with Tory donors after announcing tax bonanza for bankers was mistake, Kwasi Kwarteng admits

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Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng delivers his speech at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. Picture date: Monday October 3, 2022. PA Photo. Prime Minister Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have abandoned a plan to abolish the top rate of income tax for the highest earners in an astonishing U-turn, issuing a statement, hours before he had been due to defend the plans at the Conservative Party conference. See PA story POLITICS Tory. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

QUAFFING champagne with Tory donors just hours after announcing a tax slash for bankers and the rich was probably a mistake, the Chancellor admitted yesterday.

Kwasi Kwarteng said he “gets how it looks” after it emerged he had a drinks party with financiers and hedge fund chiefs on the day of the mini-budget.

Kwasi Kwarteng has admitted it was a mistake to drink champagne with Tory donors after announcing a tax bonanza for bankers

And he added that “with hindsight it probably wasn’t the best day to go” to the Tory party event.

But he was only there for 15 minutes and the event had been in the diary for “a few weeks”, he said.

He told LBC Radio: “I spent, I think, quarter of an hour there, or maybe a bit longer.

“It was a party event, we have party events all the time.

“I think it was a difficult call and I totally get how it looks.

“I just feel that it was something that I was signed up to do and I had to do.”

He acknowledged that “with hindsight it probably wasn’t the best day to go”.

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