Liz Truss has overruled Kwasi Kwarteng’s top appointment at the Treasury and handed the role to a veteran Treasury official, one of a series of moves designed to calm markets and backbenchers.
On Monday, James Bowler was announced as the new permanent secretary of the Treasury, having served for two decades at the Treasury and then as permanent secretary at the Department for International Trade.
But a Whitehall source confirmed that the job had been offered last week to a different candidate, Antonia Romeo, an experienced permanent secretary but someone who was seen as a reformer who did not have Treasury experience.
The announcement of Bowler’s appointment was striking in tone, with three mentions of the new permanent secretary having “20 years experience” in the department, a marked contrast to briefings before last month’s mini-budget that Kwarteng and Truss aimed to banish “Treasury orthodoxy”.
One Treasury insider said Bowler was on good terms with the prime minister. “James Bowler was the only one that she [Truss] ever got on with,” they said. “She felt the rest of the Treasury were rude to her and didn’t take her seriously enough” (1).
Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey appeared on TV minutes after the Bank of England’s statement and said she was not aware of the intervention.
She also insisted the UK’s public finances are in a ‘good state’
Ms Coffey denied that Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng brought his medium-term fiscal plan forward because the markets were spooked.
She told Sky News: ‘I think he decided we’re in a good state and we’ll continue to discuss this across Government and with Parliament over the few weeks ahead.’
Omah, I have a very different view of her than you.
I don’t think that she is clueless at at, I think she wants us to think that she is clueless, but she is far from it, in reality one of the ones driving this radical approach, but escaping all responsibility for any blame.
Coffey’s record displays a less than acute sense of awareness :
On 6 July 2011, Coffey defended Rebekah Brooks over the News of the World’s involvement in the news media phone hacking scandal. She said a “witch hunt” was developing against Brooks, and that simply to say Brooks was editor of the newspaper at the time was not enough evidence against her.
Coffey also faced criticism from some Suffolk residents over her support for the Government’s proposal to sell off forestry and woodland in public ownership, in 2011.
In October 2016, she was criticised by the then Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron for accepting hospitality worth £890 from Ladbrokes after supporting the gambling industry in Parliament as part of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee; she denied that she had been “influenced in her considerations on matters of related policy by any hospitality received”.
In September 2021, Coffey was accused of miscalculating the amount of work a Universal Credit claimant would need to do in order to make up for the proposed end of the £20-a-week increase in benefits, brought in to assist people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Coffey said: “We’re conscious that £20 a week is about two hours’ extra work every week – we will be seeing what we can do to help people perhaps secure those extra hours, but ideally also to make sure they’re also in a place to get better paid jobs, as well.”
In December 2021, Coffey’s staff were accused of drinking and eating takeaways during the lockdown period. A few weeks later, she tweeted support for the prime minister (in regard to the Partygate allegations), stating that she thought his apology to be sincere.
Coffey continued to defend Johnson in July 2022 when he was accused of overlooking MP Chris Pincher’s alleged sexual misconduct when he was appointed Deputy Chief Whip. Coffey went on record to say that Johnson was “not aware” of “specific” allegations relating to Pincher. She went on to say in several interviews that she felt Johnson had dealt with the issue decisively.
On Thursday last week, Kwarteng named Antonia Romeo who is currently permanent secretary at the justice department, as his preferred choice to become the Treasury’s chief civil servant.
Before the matter became public Truss – who worked with Romeo at the trade department – initially favored the appointment. However, she changed her mind over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the decision hasn’t yet been announced.
Romeo, who has made a name for herself within government for her habit of posing for selfies with celebrities, was symbolic of Truss and Kwarteng’s attempts to break away from the economic orthodoxy at the Treasury, which they blame for low growth.
However, after a series of missteps that included roiling the markets with £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts, the prime minister and chancellor have shifted to a more cautious route.
On Monday, James Bowler was announced as the new permanent secretary of the Treasury.
It’s the latest bit of housekeeping British officials will announce on Monday as Kwarteng heads to the autumn meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, which has been sharply critical of his first few weeks in office.
For a moment, I was going to suggest that one of us buys it and we could share it around. But I can’t see anyone wanting to shell out £19.95 from Amazon for it.
Liz Truss has said there will be no return to austerity, despite the IFS warning that more than £60 billion of spending cuts are needed to reduce debt without cancelling tax cuts.
Asked if the Prime Minister stood by Boris Johnson’s promise to not return to austerity, Liz Truss’ spokesperson said: “Yes. Clearly we recognise in the first instance it will be the Chancellor who comes forward with our medium-term fiscal plan, we will set out our position then. These are challenging times and we have made significant interventions costing many billions to provide the necessary support to protect people from these global challenges. Obviously that will require some decisions on spending, but it will be the Chancellor who comes forward to set those out.”
Seemingly LT is ensuring that ** the Chancellor ** is the fall-guy (if required) …
“It will be the Chancellor who comes forward” reminded me of the deflectionary “That would be an ecumenical matter” …
