Chancellor-Rate Rises Due To Fed, Not Mini-Budget

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng speaking to the BBC, argues that the spike in UK gilts recorded over the past 10 days is not due to his mini-budget, stating to R4 presenter Nick Robinson that, "What I’m telling you, and I don’t think you’re listening, is that interest rates have actually been driven by the Fed all year"

• Asked is the UK entering a new era of austerity, states, “You’ll see what our spending plans are in the medium-term fiscal plan and I’m not going to be drawn into that.”
• Asked whether he will repeat comment of a week ago there is 'more to come' on tax cuts, says, “There will be no tax cuts ahead of a Budget.”
• The past 10 days has seen support for PM Liz Truss' Conservatives collapse to the point where the opinion polling lead for the main opposition centre-left Labour Party is running at between 17% and 33% between 29 Sep-3 Oct, enough to give Sir Keir Starmer's party a healthy majority in the Commons.
• Conservative Party conference gets underway in Birmingham today. Could prove a difficult time for Truss & Kwarteng. Following U-turn, gov't risks being seen as 'in office but not in power'.