Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng was born on 26 May 1975 and is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Spelthorne in northern Surrey since May 2010.
41 Facts About Kwasi Kwarteng
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Kwasi Kwarteng was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the Boris Johnson government from 2021 to 2022, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Liz Truss government between September and October 2022.
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Kwasi Kwarteng worked as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and as a financial analyst before standing for election to the House of Commons.
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In November 2018, Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union by Theresa May After May resigned in 2019, Kwasi Kwarteng supported Boris Johnson's bid to become Conservative leader.
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In January 2021, Kwasi 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.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was succeeded by Jeremy Hunt, who was retained by Rishi Sunak following Truss's resignation, and returned to the backbenches.
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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 emigrated from Ghana as students in the 1960s.
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Kwasi Kwarteng's mother is a barrister and his father an economist in the Commonwealth Secretariat.
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Kwasi Kwarteng read classics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1993.
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Kwasi Kwarteng achieved a double first class degree, and twice won the Browne Medal.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was a member of the team which won the BBC quiz show University Challenge in 1995.
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Kwasi Kwarteng wrote a book, Ghosts of Empire, about the legacy of the British Empire, published by Bloomsbury in 2011.
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Kwasi Kwarteng co-authored Gridlock Nation with Jonathan Dupont in 2011, about the causes of and solutions to traffic congestion in Britain.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was chairman of the conservative think tank Bow Group in 2006.
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Kwasi Kwarteng 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.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was selected as the Conservative candidate for Spelthorne in January 2010.
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Kwasi Kwarteng won the seat with a majority of 10,019 votes.
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Kwasi Kwarteng did not vote on the backbench EU Referendum Bill in October 2011.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was re-elected at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 14,152 votes.
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Kwasi Kwarteng backed the UK's withdrawal from the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
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On 16 November 2018, Kwasi Kwarteng replaced Suella Braverman as a minister in the Department for Exiting the EU.
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Kwasi Kwarteng supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed to the Privy Council on the same day.
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In September 2019, Kwasi Kwarteng stated on The Andrew Neil Show: "I'm not saying this, but, many people are saying that the judges are biased", after the Court of Session ruled that Johnson's prorogation of parliament was illegal.
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Kwasi Kwarteng committed the department to cutting global emissions to stop climate change.
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In January 2022, while on a trip to Saudi Arabia, Kwasi Kwarteng accepted flights and hospitality from Saudi Aramco, the majority state-owned energy firm.
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Kwasi Kwarteng visited Aramco's Shaybah oil field with the Saudi energy minister, although this was not logged in BEIS transparency records.
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Opposition politicians criticised Kwasi Kwarteng for accepting the Saudi state's hospitality, particularly in light of their human rights record, and raised concerns over whether he broke the ministerial code.
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Ed Miliband, Labour's shadow business secretary, accused Kwasi Kwarteng of being complacent.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was an outspoken supporter of Owen Paterson, who had been found by the Commons Select Committee on Standards to have committed "an egregious case of paid advocacy".
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In reaction to this ruling, Kwasi Kwarteng called for the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, to "consider her position".
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On 15 November 2021, Kwasi Kwarteng published a letter of apology to Stone, in which he said he "did not mean to express doubt about your ability to discharge your role" and apologised for "any upset or distress my choice of words may have caused".
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Kwasi Kwarteng refused to allow the Office for Budget Responsibility to assess the economic impact of the budget and provide a forecast.
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Kwasi Kwarteng said the plan had become a "distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing the country".
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Kwasi Kwarteng stated he had urged her to "slow down" after the mini-budget.
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Kwasi Kwarteng maintains Truss and her team lost perspective over the budget and its political or financial results.
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Kwasi Kwarteng is considered a member of the right wing of the Conservative Party, and is a member of the Free Enterprise Group.
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Kwasi Kwarteng is described by friends as an "intensely private" person.
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Kwasi Kwarteng was previously in a relationship with former Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
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Kwasi Kwarteng married the City solicitor Harriet Edwards in December 2019.
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Kwasi Kwarteng has lived in Bayswater, and in January 2022 purchased a house in Greenwich.