17 June 2023 , 16:36
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Failed Tory ex-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng pocketed £27,000 for giving a speech to bankers in Switzerland, it has been revealed.
Just months after he and Liz Truss tanked the UK economy with their kamikaze mini-budget, Mr Kwarteng has started raking in cash from public speaking.
He spoke at April’s Fund Experts Forum in Zurich, which focused on Swizerland’s relationship with Europe, delivering a speech entitled: “Growth Plan for Europe – How to Get Back in the Driver’s Seat.”
The ex-Chancellor spoke for around 30 minutes in the afternoon, directly before former European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker.
The event closed with a “networking” event, including a “gin tasting.”
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Parliament records reveal Mr Kwarteng received payment of £27,000 from Tamedia Finanz und Wirtschaft, the Swiss firm that runs the conference, at the end of May.
Mr Kwarteng lasted 38 days in the job (Jonathan Buckmaster)Mr Kwarteng declared the speech constituted 12 hours of work, amounting to £2,250 per hour.
Last week Labour revealed homeowners had been hit by an average rise of almost £8,000 in mortgage interest payments after borrowing rates trebled in two years.
The hike, which Labour blamed on Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss’ “reckless economic gamble”, means the average person getting a mortgage deal now pays £223 a week in interest payments alone - up from £71 in 2021.
The fee from Mr Kwarteng’s speech could have paid off the average weekly mortgage interest payments for 121 UK homeowners.
In the biography on the event’s website, the only mention of Mr Kwarteng’s brief stint at the Treasury is a note that he was Chancellor “between 6 September and 14 October 2022.”
Mr Kwarteng was sacked by Ms Truss as she desperately tried to cling on to power last October.
But he has repeatedly refused to apologise for having spooked the markets and sent mortgage rates skyrocketing.
He told Channel 4 News in May: “"I'm not going to apologise.
"I've said very clearly, you know, what was done was done, but I don't believe that politicians are endlessly, you know, apologising for everything that has gone in the past. I'm looking forward.”
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But he added: “I think we could have done things differently, absolutely."