Kwarteng also said he felt that neither main party leaders were ‘inspiring huge confidence’
The former Chancellor has revealed how he told Liz Truss she had three weeks left as Prime Minister after she fired him, but was shocked to then see her only last six days.
Kwasi Kwarteng also said he felt that neither main party leaders were ‘inspiring huge confidence’ but he felt that Rishi Sunak was 'basically right' on Labour's tax policies.
Discussing the mini-budget, Kwasi Kwarteng said: “I was in it, I saw all of it and I wish it hadn't happened. We were being buffeted around and we needed a period of stability and calm. And looking back, I can see that it was difficult time.
“I've talked about it a lot but you don't have to be a great student of political history to know when a Prime Minister sacks the Chancellor, they've effectively blown themselves up. “And I said to [Liz Truss] ‘you've got three weeks’ but I was wrong. It was six days.
“That was unfortunate but we move on. I definitely think that Rishi has tried to hold Labour’s feet to the fire on tax. And I think what he says is basically right.Speaking on GB News Kwasi Kwarteng said: “We have had the seven-way debates and if that were possible, they were even duller than the debate we've just seen last night. There was no thread, it was very incoherent. I think we're going to see next week, some of the anomalies of the first past the post, because you're going to get a Labour Party - I don't think they'll get much more than 40% - but if the polls are to be believed, they'll get a huge majority.
“And that's largely because the other parties are very split, particularly the Conservative and Reform.
“I'm old enough, just, to remember the 1983 general election, which was in a way like this in reverse in that you had the Conservatives were on about 44%. You had labour and the SDP on about 25% and they effectively split their vote, and the Tories had a huge majority.
“So potentially, you're going to see odd results, and that's just a feature of the system. And we can have a debate about first past the post, but we've all lived under it all our lives. We've had it for a very long time and that's just the way we do it.
“Neither of these leaders are inspiring huge confidence and we've got to be honest about that. In 1997 Blair got 44%. Keir is trending down, and he's got a problem.
“But we have had a tumultuous time. I think [Rishi Sunak] deserves some credit in stabilising the situation.
“It's difficult. After 14 years you could have the most charismatic leader in the world and it's very difficult to make the case that we need another five years and I think Rishi is doing a reasonable job.
“But we've got to be frank and say both main leaders are struggling. And we haven't mentioned Reform once, even though they've doubled pretty much their vote share in the last four weeks.
“And I think that was the elephant in the room, actually. And we've got to be candid and open and say, ‘Why is this happening?’
“We can't just go on with the talking points over on the doorstep that people are loving kids. They're not. And we've got to be frank about that.”
