Kwasi Kwarteng has discovered that friendships don’t count in politics

It is a remarkably quick end to a partnership between a pair who vowed to always be ‘in lockstep’, writes Andrew Grice

They even live near other in Greenwich, London (PA)

Kwasi Kwarteng has discovered that friendships don’t count in politics. Liz Truss has unceremoniously sacked her chancellor after 38 days in the job, even though the two ideological soulmates have been close allies since entering the Commons in 2010. They even live near other in Greenwich, London.

It is a remarkably quick end to a partnership between a pair who vowed to always be “in lockstep” like David Cameron and George Osborne and never at daggers drawn like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Yet tensions between them have grown since last month’s mini-Budget. It was Truss rather than Kwarteng who ditched its announcement that the 45p top rate of income tax would be scrapped.

Similarly, Number 10 has driven the filleting of large parts of the remaining £43bn of tax cuts, including Kwarteng’s decision to ditch Rishi Sunak’s proposed rise in corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent next April.