London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Dec 13, 2025

Bank of England head Andrew Bailey denies role in Liz Truss's downfall

Bank of England head Andrew Bailey denies role in Liz Truss's downfall

Andrew Bailey's comments to Sky News come after the former president of America's Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said the critical decision that sealed Ms Truss's fate was when the UK central bank ended its emergency support for the bond markets last month.
The Bank of England Governor has denied having any part in the downfall of Liz Truss.

In an interview with Sky News, Andrew Bailey said that he "vehemently disagrees" with allegations that the Bank's actions precipitated the departure of the former prime minister.

It followed claims from Narayana Kocherlakota, the former president of America's Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, in a Bloomberg article, that the critical decision that sealed Ms Truss's fate was when the UK central bank ended its emergency support for the bond markets last month.

However, in an interview recorded alongside the publication of its forecasts earlier this month, Mr Bailey told Sky News: "I vehemently disagree with [that analysis]… it is based on a fallacy.

"The argument is that we should have continued our intervention. And that had we done so, the world would have turned out differently. But what that misses is that our intervention, as a central bank, as it should be, was to address a precise financial stability problem, particularly connected to parts of the pensions fund industry.

"I'm afraid had we gone on with that intervention, beyond the point of financial stability being suitably restored, we'd have been creating another problem, which is what economists tend to call a moral hazard problem, ie people would have said: 'well the Bank of England's always going to intervene', and that's wrong. We did the job we set out to do."

Asked whether he bore responsibility for Liz Truss's departure, he said: "No, of course we didn't depose Liz Truss. I would never do anything like that."

Economic fallout

The comments come with the UK economy now officially shrinking, in what many economists - including the Bank of England - believe is the beginning of a potentially protracted recession.

The new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is due to unveil a package of spending cuts and tax rises later this week, in what the government is casting as a repair job following the mini-budget.

The governor said that while the interest rates on government bonds had fallen sharply since the period of chaos, among the main victims of the disruption were those who signed up to fixed rate mortgages during that period.

"I have a great deal of sympathy for [those people]… It is very unfortunate what has happened."

Gerard Lyons, an economist who offered some advice to the Truss team, says he warned them about the risk of a market disturbance.

"We said markets are in the very febrile state," he said. "If your policy actions are not clear, and not understood, there will be a market crisis. It was quite clear that markets were worried about inflation. Markets were in the febrile state. And they were concerned about any change in UK economic policy, therefore, it was vital.

"I said this publicly and privately that: 'you needed to convince the markets that any fiscal action was necessary, not inflationary, and affordable'."

A "maverick left-wing crazy"


Yanis Varoufakis

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis - often described as one of the most maverick people to have held such a role in recent history - said that Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget was considerably more radical than anything he ever proposed or implemented.

"I was not Maverick at all," he said. "All I tried to do was to say that, you know, we are bankrupt, Greece is bankrupt - that I'm not going to take another credit card to pretend that I'm repaying my loans.

"I should have been celebrated by the most conservative economists and politicians in the world and instead I was demonised as a maverick left-wing crazy.

"Kwarteng, on the other hand, simply followed the strategy of assuming that just because the markets are calm today, they will remain calm tomorrow... and the markets called them out."

However, many market insiders are worried that even now, markets remain in a febrile state.

"The problems haven't haven't gone away," said Daniela Russell, head of UK rates strategy at HSBC bank.

"Perhaps this isn't just an isolated incident, but it could be the sort of a trend. One thing that's particularly concerning to me is that there's an awful lot of debt in the system."
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Ex-ICC Prosecutor Alleges UK Threatened to Withdraw Funding Over Netanyahu Arrest Warrant Bid
UK Disciplinary Tribunal Clears Carter-Ruck Lawyer of Misconduct in OneCoin Case
‘Pink Ladies’ Emerge as Prominent Face of UK Anti-Immigration Protests
Nigel Farage Says Reform UK Has Become Britain’s Largest Party as Labour Membership Falls Sharply
Google DeepMind and UK Government Launch First Automated AI Lab to Accelerate Scientific Discovery
UK Economy Falters Ahead of Budget as Growth Contracts and Confidence Wanes
Australia Approves Increased Foreign Stake in Strategic Defence Shipbuilder
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaims, “For Ukraine, surrendering their land would be a nightmare.”
Microsoft Challenges £2.1 Billion UK Cloud Licensing Lawsuit at Competition Tribunal
Fake Doctor in Uttar Pradesh Accused of Killing Woman After Performing YouTube-Based Surgery
Hackers Are Hiding Malware in Open-Source Tools and IDE Extensions
Traveling to USA? Homeland Security moving toward requiring foreign travelers to share social media history
UK Officials Push Back at Trump Saying European Leaders ‘Talk Too Much’ About Ukraine
UK Warns of Escalating Cyber Assault Linked to Putin’s State-Backed Operations
UK Consumer Spending Falters in November as Households Hold Back Ahead of Budget
UK Orders Fresh Review of Prince Harry’s Security Status After Formal Request
U.S. Authorises Nvidia to Sell H200 AI Chips to China Under Security Controls
Trump in Direct Assault: European Leaders Are Weak, Immigration a Disaster. Russia Is Strong and Big — and Will Win
"App recommendation" or disguised advertisement? ChatGPT Premium users are furious
"The Great Filtering": Australia Blocks Hundreds of Thousands of Minors From Social Networks
Mark Zuckerberg Pulls Back From Metaverse After $70 Billion Loss as Meta Shifts Priorities to AI
Nvidia CEO Says U.S. Data-Center Builds Take Years while China ‘Builds a Hospital in a Weekend’
Indian Airports in Turmoil as IndiGo Cancels Over a Thousand Flights, Stranding Thousands
Hollywood Industry on Edge as Netflix Secures Near-$60 Bln Loan for Warner Bros Takeover
Drugs and Assassinations: The Connection Between the Italian Mafia and Football Ultras
Hollywood megadeal: Netflix acquires Warner Bros. Discovery for 83 billion dollars
The Disregard for a Europe ‘in Danger of Erasure,’ the Shift Toward Russia: Trump’s Strategic Policy Document
Two and a Half Weeks After the Major Outage: A Cloudflare Malfunction Brings Down Multiple Sites
UK data-regulator demands urgent clarity on racial bias in police facial-recognition systems
Labour Uses Biscuits to Explain UK Debt — MPs Lean Into Social Media to Reach New Audiences
German President Lays Wreath at Coventry as UK-Germany Reaffirm Unity Against Russia’s Threat
UK Inquiry Finds Putin ‘Morally Responsible’ for 2018 Novichok Death — London Imposes Broad Sanctions on GRU
India backs down on plan to mandate government “Sanchar Saathi” app on all smartphones
King Charles Welcomes German President Steinmeier to UK in First State Visit by Berlin in 27 Years
UK Plans Major Cutback to Jury Trials as Crown Court Backlog Nears 80,000
UK Government to Significantly Limit Jury Trials in England and Wales
U.S. and U.K. Seal Drug-Pricing Deal: Britain Agrees to Pay More, U.S. Lifts Tariffs
UK Postpones Decision Yet Again on China’s Proposed Mega-Embassy in London
Head of UK Budget Watchdog Resigns After Premature Leak of Reeves’ Budget Report
Car-sharing giant Zipcar to exit UK market by end of 2025
Reports of Widespread Drone Deployment Raise Privacy and Security Questions in the UK
UK Signals Security Concerns Over China While Pursuing Stronger Trade Links
Google warns of AI “irrationality” just as Gemini 3 launch rattles markets
Top Consultancies Freeze Starting Salaries as AI Threatens ‘Pyramid’ Model
Macron Says Washington Pressuring EU to Delay Enforcement of Digital-Regulation Probes Against Meta, TikTok and X
UK’s DragonFire Laser Downs High-Speed Drones as £316m Deal Speeds Naval Deployment
UK Chancellor Rejects Claims She Misled Public on Fiscal Outlook Ahead of Budget
Starmer Defends Autumn Budget as Finance Chief Faces Accusations of Misleading Public Finances
EU Firms Struggle with 3,000-Hour Paperwork Load — While Automakers Fear De Facto 2030 Petrol Car Ban
White House launches ‘Hall of Shame’ site to publicly condemn media outlets for alleged bias
×