It is time for Liz Truss to go, Nicola Sturgeon has said after the British prime minister sacked her chancellor and U-turned on a cut to corporation tax.
Liz Truss relieved Kwasi Kwarteng of his duties on Friday, with the ex-chancellor dashing back from a meeting of finance ministers in Washington to learn his fate.
Mr Kwarteng announced his mini-budget to the UK House of Commons last month, with the tax cuts sending the pound crashing against the dollar and the Bank of England being forced to intervene.
Despite announcing that the planned scrapping of the top rate of tax would not go ahead, it was not enough to save his job.
The prime minister, speaking in a Downing Street press conference on Friday, also announced the planned cut to corporation tax would be scrapped, with the levy actually being increased to 25 per cent.
Nicola Sturgeon, speaking on Friday afternoon, said it was time for the UK prime minister to step down and for a general election to be called.
“I think the only decent thing that Tory backbenchers can do now is call time on Liz Truss and this entire UK Government, and allow people across the UK to have a general election,” the First Minister told broadcasters.
“This was beyond a joke, it was never funny, but Liz Truss has already through her own decisions crashed the economy and heaped misery on people who were already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
“Today, she has forced her chancellor to carry the can for her decisions.
“She had already shown herself to be completely out of her depth as Prime Minister, and as of today she is also a lame duck prime minister.
“The sooner she goes and the sooner people get the chance to get rid of this Tory Government that is doing so much damage, once and for all, the better.”
She added: “It is unconscionable what – in just a month or so in office – Liz Truss has done to the UK economy and to the living standards in every part of the UK.
— Kwasi Kwarteng (@KwasiKwarteng) October 14, 2022
“It’s time for her to go.
“It’s time for this entire UK Government to go and for people across the UK to get the opportunity to have their say in a general election.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said “11th hour U-turns and scapegoating” will not be enough to save Ms Truss.
“It’s not just Kwasi Kwarteng that needs to go. We need to remove all those that were involved in putting together this disastrous plan, and everyone that signed it off – not just the guy who read it out.
“It’s time to remove this economically illiterate and morally bankrupt Tory party from government.
“We need a general election now, so that Labour can boot this rotten Tory Government out of office.”
Elsewhere, the Scottish Lib Dems also pushed for an election.
“This Tory Government has plummeted public support to some of its lowest-ever levels and caused financial misery for millions up and down the country,” leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said in a statement.
“Change is in the air – it’s time for new hope. That starts with a general election to get both Truss and the Tories out of power.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Green economy spokeswoman Maggie Chapman sad Kwasi Kwarteng “did not act alone” on the mini-budget.
“It’s not just the corporation tax cut that needs to go, it is the brutal economic vision that underpinned it and the Prime Minister who delivered it,” she added.
