Washington: The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has called Liz Truss’s original economic policies “a mistake”.
In an unusual intervention, he said the economic turmoil that followed the government’s mini-budget had been “predictable”.
Speaking at an ice cream shop in Oregon, Mr Biden was asked by reporters about the prime minister’s attempt to boost growth with unfunded tax cuts – what the reporter called the “trickle-down plan that she has had to back away from”.
The president replied: “Well, it’s predictable. I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake.”
He added: “I think that the idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy at a time when – anyway, I just think – I disagreed with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain to make that judgment, not me.”
Biden has long been critical of the economic theory at the heart of the prime minister’s policy, namely that cutting taxes on businesses and the rich generates growth that allows wealth to “trickle down” to all sectors of society.
But it is unusual for the president of the United States to be so critical of the leader of one of America’s closest allies.
