Piers Morgan announces return to Question Time after scolding Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss for embarrassing tax U-turn-Cydney Yeates-Entertainment – Metro

Piers Morgan will no doubt be going IN on Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss on Question Time this week (Picture: Getty)

Piers Morgan has smugly announced his return to Question Time minutes after ripping into Kwasi Kwarteng for his humiliating U-turn over the 45p tax rate cut for higher earners.

Only yesterday, Prime Minister Liz Truss declared herself ‘absolutely committed’ to slashing the rate from 45% to 40%, after it was slated by opposition parties and her own MPs.

Now her Chancellor, Mr Kwarteng, has been forced into an astonishing climb down despite the pair repeatedly reiterating their support for the measure.

Morgan wasted no time in slating both Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss for failing to do the research, writing in a tweet: ‘No offence to our new Prime Minister & Chancellor, but on balance I’d prefer the country to be led by people who do ‘ground work’ before announcing hugely damaging economic policies they have to immediately reverse.’

In another post, he added: ‘A good week to make my return to @bbcquestiontime…’

A good time indeed.

In an interview on Monday’s BBC Breakfast, Mr Kwarteng suggested he told Ms Truss they needed to U-turn on the abolition of the top rate of income tax for the highest earners.

He said: ‘The Prime Minister decided not to proceed with the abolition of the rate.’

When pressed if it was her U-turn, he said: ‘No, we talked together, I said this is what I was minded to do and we decided together, we were in agreement that we wouldn’t proceed with the abolition of the rate.’

Prime Minister Liz Truss had been slated for her plan (Picture: Reuters)

Mr Kwarteng later added: ‘The conversation about the 45p rate was this terrible distraction really from what was a very, very strong plan and I’m very pleased that we’ve decided not to proceed with that because it was drowning out the elements of an excellent plan.’

He also defended the delay on the reversal, saying: ‘We can always have a debate about when we could’ve made the decision but the important thing is we’ve made the decision and we can now move forward with making the push for the growth plan.’

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Prime Minister Liz Truss also tweeted: ‘We get it and we have listened.

‘The abolition of the 45pc rate had become a distraction from our mission to get Britain moving.

‘Our focus now is on building a high growth economy that funds world-class public services, boosts wages, and creates opportunities across the country.’

Question Time airs on Thursday at 10.40pm on BBC One.

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