Lessons From Five UK Chancellors
In researching a new book, Can You Run the Economy? (Penguin, Sept. 18),
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/471419/can-you-run-the-economy-by-mayes-joe/9781529960716
I talked with Norman Lamont, Philip Hammond, Kwasi Kwarteng, Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves: four Tories and the current Labour chancellor.
This is what they told me.
Growth Is the Holy Grail
Growth is what improves living standards and boosts the tax take. It’s the top priority for every chancellor. “The best thing for fiscal sustainability is a healthy, growing economy,” said Reeves, the first female chancellor in the 800-year history of the role.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Reeves
“It’s very important as chancellor not to pay too much attention to what the tabloids write,” said Lamont, who held the position from 1990 to 1993 under John Major’s premiership.
“You should take a longer-term view. Public opinion, and even tabloid newspapers, surprisingly often alter their opinion.”
When Lamont was first appointed to the role, a civil servant asked if he knew that he’d soon become the most unpopular man in the country.
It was a prophecy that almost certainly came true on “Black Wednesday,” when the UK crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 following a run on the pound.
Kwasi Kwarteng’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwasi_Kwarteng
infamous “mini-budget” of September 2022 surprised markets with a swath of tax cuts and giveaways that a surge in borrowing funded. The response from investors was brutal.
They dumped UK assets in a move that precipitated the fall of then-Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Truss
The thing about Trussonomics is that it was kind of half-right, at least in its aims
https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2023/02/to-survive-right-needs-to-make-new.html
Joe Mayes Bloomberg September 26, 2025
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