British Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss.Credit:Getty Images
But the plan triggered a crisis of confidence in the government,hammering the value of the pound and government bond prices and jolting global markets to such an extent that the Bank of England had to intervene with a £65 billion ($73 billion) program to settle the gilt market.
“It is clear that the abolition of the 45p tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country,” Kwarteng said in a statement.
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“As a result,I’m announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45p tax rate. We get it,and we have listened.”
The decision to reverse course is likely to put Truss and Kwarteng under huge pressure less than four weeks after they came to power. Britain has had four prime ministers in the past six politically turbulent years.
Truss,who took office last month after winning a leadership contest among Conservative Party members,and not the country,admitted on Sunday she should have done more to “lay the ground” for the policy.
While the removal of the top rate of tax was only expected to cost about £2 billion out of a £45 billion tax-cutting plan,it was the most eye-catching element of a fiscal package that was to be funded by government borrowing,with Kwarteng not explaining how it would be paid for in the long term.