Kwasi Kwarteng

Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng (born 26 May 1975) is a British politician who served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 6 September to 14 October 2022 under Liz Truss and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2021 to 2022 under Boris Johnson.

Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng was born in the London Borough of Waltham Forest on 26 May 1975, the only child of Alfred K. Kwarteng and Charlotte Boaitey-Kwarteng, who had both emigrated from Ghana as students in the 1960s.

His mother is a barrister and his father an economist in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

After starting school at a state primary school in Waltham Forest, Kwarteng attended Colet Court, an independent preparatory school in London, where he won the Harrow History Prize in 1988.

Kwarteng then went to Eton College, where he was a King's Scholar and was awarded the Newcastle Scholarship prize.

He read classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1993.

He achieved a double first class degree, and twice won the Browne Medal.

He was a member of the team which won the BBC quiz show University Challenge in 1995.

At Cambridge, he was a member of the University Pitt Club, and has since returned to visit.

He was a Kennedy Scholar for a year at Harvard University, and then earned a PhD degree in political history from the University of Cambridge in 2000, with a thesis on the recoinage crisis of 1695–97.

Before becoming an MP, Kwarteng worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase as well as at WestLB and the hedge fund Odey Asset Management.

Kwarteng was chairman of the conservative think tank Bow Group in 2006.

In the same year, The Times suggested that he could become the first black Conservative cabinet minister.

He was sixth on the Conservative list of candidates for the London Assembly in the 2008 London Assembly election, but was not elected, as the Conservatives obtained only three London-wide list seats.

A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Spelthorne since 2010.

Kwarteng was born in London to Ghanaian immigrant parents and was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge.

He worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a financial analyst before standing for election to the House of Commons.

Kwarteng was selected as the Conservative candidate for Spelthorne in January 2010, and won the seat with a majority of 10,019 votes (21.2%).

As a backbencher, Kwarteng has co-authored a number of papers and books, including After the Coalition (2011) and Britannia Unchained (2012).

He wrote a book, Ghosts of Empire, about the legacy of the British Empire, published by Bloomsbury in 2011.

He also co-authored Gridlock Nation with Jonathan Dupont in 2011, about the causes of and solutions to traffic congestion in Britain.

Kwarteng did not vote on the backbench EU Referendum Bill in October 2011.

In March 2011 he registered that he would be paid "£10,000 on a half-yearly basis" for work as "Consultant to Odey Asset Management" in the House of Commons Register of Members' Financial Interests.

Only one payment appears to have been made.

In 2013 he described the Help to Buy housing scheme as "inflationary".

In 2014, his book, War and Gold: A Five-Hundred-Year History of Empires, Adventures and Debt, was published.

It is a history of capital and the enduring ability of money, when combined with speculation, to ruin societies.

Considered "a rising star on the right of the party" by 2015, Kwarteng initially became a Conservative candidate in the constituency of Brent East at the 2005 general election.

He finished in third place, behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather and the Labour candidate Yasmin Qureshi.

In 2015, his next book, Thatcher's Trial: Six Months That Defined a Leader, was published.

In November 2018, Kwarteng was appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state for Exiting the European Union by Theresa May.

After May resigned in 2019, Kwarteng supported Boris Johnson's bid to become leader of the Conservative Party.

Following Johnson's appointment as prime minister, he appointed Kwarteng as the minister of state for Business, Energy and Clean Growth.

In January 2021, Kwarteng was promoted to the office of secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a role he retained throughout the remainder of Johnson's premiership.

After Johnson resigned in 2022, Kwarteng supported Truss's bid to become Conservative leader.

Following Truss's appointment as prime minister, she appointed Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He was the first black chancellor.

On 23 September, Kwarteng announced various tax cuts in a mini-budget that was widely criticised and which briefly caused the pound sterling to fall to its lowest-ever level against the U.S. dollar.

Kwarteng was dismissed as chancellor on 14 October after 38 days, making him the second-shortest-serving holder of the office.

He was succeeded by Jeremy Hunt, who was retained by Rishi Sunak following Truss's resignation on 25 October.