Kwasi Kwarteng’s rise and fall, from Eton scholar to chancellor

Published

3 years ago

October 14, 2022

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Kwasi Kwarteng’s stint as chancellor was perhaps as short as his rise to the top of politics was swift.

Mr Kwarteng was promoted to chancellor by Liz Truss on 6 September from his previous post as business secretary under Boris Johnson.

Within 38 days he had been sacked, his downfall set in motion by the economic turmoil unleashed by his mini-budget.

Kwarteng returns to backbenches – politics updates

He insisted his tax-cutting mini-budget was the best way to encourage growth, saying the turmoil in the UK economy was part of global pressures caused by the Ukraine war and the pandemic recovery.

But after open revolt among Tory MPs and a surge in the polls for Labour forced U-turns on two of his major policies, the prime minister decided it was time for him to go.

Mr Kwarteng is not used to failure, rising up the political ranks fairly quickly after becoming an MP in 2010 – although that did take a few attempts.

He is also no stranger to causing controversy and sticking to his guns.

There are multiple reports of him clashing with the Treasury – he vocally backed Owen Paterson during the lobbying scandal that engulfed the former MP, and he has come in for criticism for defending visiting foreign autocratic regimes, saying it was better than “shouting from the sidelines”.

Although he won his seat on a David Cameron/George Osborne ticket, he upset his bosses by advocating cutting the VAT rate to 15% by adding the charge to children’s clothes and food, and also criticised the chancellor’s Help to Buy housing scheme as inflationary.

But his close friendship with Ms Truss – with the pair even becoming neighbours on the same street in Greenwich – secured him a spot not only in the Treasury, but in history as the first black chancellor of the UK.

Eton to the City

Mr Kwarteng was born in 1975 in Waltham Forest, east London to Alfred and Charlotte, who had emigrated from Ghana to the UK as students in the 1960s and became an economist and barrister respectively.

An only child, he attended a state primary school before his parents sent him to a private school.

He then won a scholarship to Eton College before heading to Trinity College, Cambridge where he achieved a first-class degree in classics and history – and was also a member of its winning University Challenge team.

After Cambridge, he won another scholarship to Harvard University then returned to Cambridge to study for a PhD in economic history.

His first career was as a journalist, writing columns for the Daily Telegraph, before he headed to the City where he worked as a financial analyst for big companies such as JP Morgan.

He ran for the seat of Brent East in the 2005 general election but came in third.

Mr Kwarteng then moved to chair one of the oldest think tanks in the UK, the Bow Group and in 2008 made the Conservative list of candidates for the London Assembly in 2008, but didn’t manage to secure a place.

In 2010, he secured a comfortable 22,000 majority in Spelthorne, Surrey, and had been on the rise since.

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Jair Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court judges vote to convict ex-president of attempting a coup

Published

26 mins ago

September 11, 2025

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Jair Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court judges vote to convict ex-president of attempting a coup

The majority of a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges have voted to convict the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup after his 2022 election defeat.

The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel.

Just one of the five judges has acquitted Bolsonaro and when the final one has voted, the panel will decide on the former president’s sentence – which could amount to decades in prison.

The five counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.

The 70-year-old, who has denied any wrongdoing, is currently under house arrest at his home in Brasilia.

His lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.

The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government.

Bolsonaro ally Donald Trump has already called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.

Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.

He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday he was seen at his garage at his property, but did not talk to the media.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.

On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.

Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro.

She said: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”

The far-right politician had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.

He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.

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Qatari PM says Israel ‘killed any hope’ of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies

Published

9 hours ago

September 11, 2025

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Qatari PM says Israel 'killed any hope' of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies

Qatar’s prime minister said Israel has “killed any hope” of seeing more hostages returned from Gaza after carrying out an attack targeting Hamas leadership in his country.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani intensified his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Tuesday’s unprecedented strike on Qatar, which killed at least six people.

“I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh Mohammed told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday.

“They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation, they have no other hope for that.”

Sheikh Mohammed added that he thought Netanyahu had “just killed any hope for those hostages”.

A total of 48 Israeli hostages captured during Hamas’ 7 October attacks on southern Israel have not been returned home.

With its attack in Qatar, Israel had sought to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas.

Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.

The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been mediating negotiations to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump reportedly held a heated phone call with Mr Netanyahu after the attack, telling him his decision to target Hamas leadership in Qatar was not wise, according to The Wall Street Journal.

There has been no immediate acknowledgement of the remarks from Mr Netanyahu, however, he’s continued to defend the strikes and threatened further action against Qatar.

“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Because if you don’t, we will.”

A senior figure in the Qatari government, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, was the one to announce to the world on X that America’s call to alert them to the attack came 10 minutes after the first explosion sounded in Doha.

Dr Al-Ansari, who serves as Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, recounted the moment of the attack to Sky News’ correspondent Sally Lockwood.

“I was coming home to my family and the moment I stepped out of the car I started hearing the loud noises that can only be compared to bombs,” he said.

“Being a diplomat and working for the foreign ministry throughout the mediation that we have conducted, I immediately knew that that meant that something terrible has happened.

“I can’t tell you enough how as a father living here in Qatar, that moment was a moment of reckoning for me and for all my countrymen and people who reside here in Qatar, where our lives were at risk because of the narcissistic and personal ambitions of a political operator who wants to throw the whole region into chaos.”

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Trump has ‘heated phone call’ with Netanyahu over strike targeting Hamas in Qatar

Published

23 hours ago

September 10, 2025

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Trump has 'heated phone call' with Netanyahu over strike targeting Hamas in Qatar

Donald Trump had a heated phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his military targeted Hamas inside Qatar, according to a report.

The American president told Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday that the decision to strike inside the US ally’s territory was not wise, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.

The Israeli prime minister responded by saying he had a brief window to launch the airstrike and took the opportunity, according to the newspaper.

A second call between the two leaders later that day was cordial, with Mr Trump asking Mr Netanyahu if the attack had been successful, the publication added.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.

Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.

The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations which are trying to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will”.

Qatar has hit back at him, saying his comments about the Gulf nation hosting a Hamas office were “reckless”.

Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has said that if Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders on Tuesday, it would succeed next time.

“We have put terrorists on notice, wherever they may be… we’re going to pursue them, and we’re going to destroy those who will destroy us,” he said.

The airstrike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for Monday’s shooting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem that killed six people.

In another development, Sir Keir Starmer has had talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street, with Mr Herzog saying they argued during a “tough meeting”.

PM condemns Israeli action

The prime minister has condemned the Israeli attack in Qatar, and raised the matter with the president, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.

“He said the strikes were a flagrant violation of a key partner’s sovereignty and do nothing to secure the peace we all desperately want to see,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Israel has been angered by Britain’s plans to join several other Western countries, including France and Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state later this month – unless Israel meets conditions including a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Things were said that were tough and strong, and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet, they can argue. We are both democracies,” Mr Herzog said at an event at Chatham House.

He also proposed offering a “fact-finding mission” to Israel, “sitting with us and studying the situation in Gaza on the humanitarian level”.

“Because we have full answers, and we are fully transparent,” he said.