The chancellor of the exchequer was dismissed in person by Truss after he rushed back early from international meetings in Washington, and before she was due to hold her first Downing Street news conference at 2:30 pm (1330 GMT).

Former foreign secretary and former Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt was appointed as Kwarteng’s replacement, making him Britain’s fourth finance minister this year.

“You have asked me to stand aside as your chancellor. I have accepted,” Kwarteng wrote in a letter to Truss, who only succeeded Boris Johnson on September 6.

But he insisted that their economic programme was needed because “the status quo was simply not an option”.

In reply, Truss wrote that Kwarteng had “put the national interest first”.

“I know that you will continue to support the mission that we share to deliver a low-tax, high-wage, high-growth economy that can transform the prosperity of our country for generations to come,” she said.

Financial upheaval sparked by the new government’s September 23 plan to slash taxes — financed via billions in more borrowing — has subsided somewhat since the Bank of England intervened in bond markets.

But the central bank was adamant it would end its bond-buying spree on Friday, and market analysts said only a bigger climbdown by Truss following Kwarteng’s disastrous budget announcement last month would avert fresh panic.

Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, told AFP Kwarteng had been made “the fall guy for the government’s mistakes” — but that the sacking had not taken the pressure off Truss or calmed the Tories.

“It’s very hard to see them coming back from this” by the next election, he added.

– ‘Not going anywhere’ –
Kwarteng was due to have stayed in Washington this weekend to conclude annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, after earned a rebuke from IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva on the need for “coherent and consistent” policies.

Speaking in Washington on Thursday, Kwarteng had insisted that his job was safe. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

But UK broadcasters showed live footage of Kwarteng’s British Airways plane landing at Heathrow airport a day early, after Truss held hurried meetings with her own financial advisors on Thursday in his absence.

Speculation was rife that Truss would row back on planned changes to corporation tax, having already changed her mind about cutting income tax for the highest earners.

The promised tax cuts were the centrepiece of Truss’s successful pitch to Tory party members that she,, rather than rival Rishi Sunak, was the best candidate to replace Johnson.

That programme now lies in tatters, and Truss’s judgement is in question more than ever, after Sunak’s warnings were entirely vindicated: higher borrowing to pay for tax cuts served only to terrify the markets and drive up borrowing costs for millions of Britons.

A new YouGov poll for The Times newspaper said 43 percent of Conservative voters want a new prime minister in Downing Street.

Other polls show a mammoth lead up opening up for the main opposition Labour party, threatening electoral meltdown for the Tories.

– ‘Romcom-worthy dash’ –
Junior minister Greg Hands said “I don’t recognise” multiple reports that senior Tory MPs were plotting to unseat Truss by installing a new leadership team under Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, who also ran to succeed Johnson.

Pressed on whether Truss will still be in 10 Downing Street in a week, Hands told ITV: “Oh definitely.”

The chancellor’s September 23 budget sparked market chaos because of fears it would drive up state debt.

The pound tumbled to a record dollar low near parity with the greenback and bond yields surged, before stabilising thanks to interventions by the Bank of England (BoE).

But with that costly BoE crutch ending on Friday, markets had already priced in a fresh about-turn by the government, leaving Downing Street with no room for manoeuvre.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said before Kwarteng’s sacking that his “romcom-worthy dash through the airport” showed the government waking up to financial reality.

But for many pundits, the self-inflicted damage risks proving terminal for Truss and her hard-right platform.

Another new poll by Ipsos showed Truss’s net satisfaction score at minus 51, lower than any of her predecessors this century, while Kwarteng left office with historically low ratings for a chancellor.

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Daura, who was sacked by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo following the siege to the National Assembly by DSS operatives, is being interrogated by the police.

EFCC sources told Daily Trust that operatives of the anti-graft agency on Tuesday evening visited the police facility at Guzape Abuja where Daura was being held preparatory to receiving him.

“It is expected that the former DSS boss will be handed [to the EFCC] over by the police for further interrogation to explain how the N17 billion traced to the headquarters of the DSS was utilized,” said one of the sources at the anti-graft agency.

The money, it was further learnt, was left behind by the Daura’s predecessor Ita Ekpeyong. It was alleged that Ekpeyong received N20 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the end of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Ekpeyong, it was also alleged, converted N17 billion into United States of America (USA) dollars, which he left behind when he handed over to Daura.

The funds were reportedly traced by EFCC investigators as a fall out of discoveries after the $43 million linked to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was found stashed at a private apartment inside Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos.

EFCC sources said operatives of the commission had been working on the investigation report that indicted the management of the DSS, but that the investigation was frustrated by Daura.

DSS agents, on the orders of Daura, prevented EFCC agents from arresting Ita Ekpeyong and sacked DG of NIA Ayo Oke on November 21, 2017, to prevent the investigation.

“So now is a good time to get Daura to answer questions in connection to the investigation earlier started,” sources said.

Daily Trust reports that Osinbajo met again with the new acting DG of DSS Matthew Seiyefa and the acting EFCC chairman Magu shortly after presiding over the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday.

The acting president had earlier on the day Daura was sacked met separately with Seiyefa and Magu. It is however not clear if the visits had anything to do with the impending interrogation of the sacked DSS boss.

Meanwhile, Seiyefa has formally taken over at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja.

Seiyefa held an inaugural management meeting with directors and senior officers yesterday where he promised to constitute a team that would steer the leadership of the agency.

Daily Trust reports that the Senate refused to confirm the appointment of Magu as substantive chairman of the EFCC based on two DSS reports sent to the lawmakers by Daura.

EFCC freezes bank accounts of Benue, Akwa Ibom

The EFCC has also frozen bank accounts of Benue and Akwa Ibom state governments.

Attempts to get EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, yesterday to explain why the accounts were frozen, failed.

However, sources said the accounts were frozen after the EFCC made efforts to invite some officials of government to make statements on suspicious transactions on the bank accounts, but invitations were not honoured.

Lawyers said that the EFCC is enabled by the Money Laundering Act to enforce freeze orders on bank accounts being investigated by the commission, but the orders can be challenged in court by any individual or government.

They said when the EFCC froze Ekiti State account, the governor Ayo Fayose went to court to lift, but the anti-graft agency eventually won at the Court of Appeal.

Governors condemn freezing of govt accounts

Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and Zamfara State Governor Abdul’aziz Yari has described the freezing of the account of the Benue State Government by the EFCC as unlawful.

Yari spoke yesterday when he met with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

“The freezing of any account of the state government, whether Benue or anywhere, is unconstitutional and is not right. That is shutting down government. Government must spend, most especially Benue that is facing insecurity challenges.

“Well, we don’t know why the EFCC took the action. But if indeed EFCC has frozen the account, from my point of view, it is wrong.

“But I believe this government will not sit down and oversee unlawful operations happening from the security agencies.

“From what happened yesterday, someone can understand that this government is following due process and laws of Nigeria.

“EFCC’s action in Benue is something that should be reversed,” he said.

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