By Gavin Jones

ROME17 Oct – The UK’s political and economic turmoil has been met with little veiled complacency among pro-European and left-wing politicians abroad, with some commentators drawing parallels with a chaotic Italy.

Britain’s new Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled a series of budget measures on Monday, two weeks ahead of schedule, in a bid to stem the dramatic loss of investor confidence in Prime Minister Liz Truss’ government.

“How is Brexit going?” Veteran Belgian politician Guy Verhofstadt, an ardent pro-European, tweeted on Saturday. “One thing is for sure: the chaos did not start in 2022, but in 2016,” he added, referring to Britain’s referendum to leave the European Union.

Spain’s Prime Minister, Socialist Pedro Sánchez, referred to Truss’ original proposal for a tax cut as the UK crisis unfolded last week.

“And we also affirm that the opposite path, namely neoliberal life, failed in previous crises, created a lot of suffering and will again lead to failure for those who follow it, as we have just seen in the UK,” he told Spanish lawmakers.

On Friday, Truss fired his Finance Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, and replaced him with Hunt, removing part of the government’s economic package, after causing a crash in financial markets, including a sharp fall in the pound’s value.

With the Conservative Party tumbling in opinion polls, social media has been filled with memes and jokes bragging about their plight.

“Have you heard that Kwasi Kwarteng has returned from the United States in first grade? Apparently they don’t want him in Business or Economics,” wrote a joke circulating on Twitter referring to Kwarteng’s hasty return from Washington to be fired by Truss.

THAT KINGDOMUNION IS NEWITALY

Outside Europe, US President Joe Biden called Britain’s plan to remove the top 45% tax rate a “mistake.”

Biden, a Democrat, has frequently criticized conservative “trickle-down” economic policies linked in the United States to former President Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. This theory argues that tax cuts and other favors for large and affluent corporations will ultimately benefit society as a whole.

“I think the idea of ​​cutting taxes on the richest people at the time … I don’t agree with the policy, but it’s up to the UK to judge,” he told reporters in Oregon Saturday.

Even the deeply conservative British newspaper The Telegraph, which supports the Brexit referendum, admitted in a column on Sunday that its economic goals had failed.

“The transformation of Great Britain into the new Italy is almost complete”, is the title of the article which draws many parallels between the economic downturn and political instability of the two countries.

Britain has had four prime ministers in the last six years, a new trend akin to Rome’s often precarious rule.

Leaders who were in Washington last week for an International Monetary Fund meeting said the turmoil in London could serve as a useful lesson for indebted Italy, which recently voted for a far-right coalition that also promised unfunded tax cuts.

“Perhaps we have a lesson to learn, because what happened has shown how volatile the situation is and therefore how much we need to be careful with our fiscal and monetary mix,” Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s EU Economic Commissioner, said at a news conference. , without mentioning the Italian name directly.

Another top official in Washington was more candid, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The UK example of how quickly and aggressively markets can turn against it is likely to dictate caution in Italian politics. I believe Rome is watching closely what is happening in the UK,” said a senior eurozone official.