Kwasi Kwarteng last night revealed he warned Liz Truss about going too far and too fast with her tax-cutting agenda.
The former chancellor said he told then-Prime Minister it was ‘mad’ to fire him days before she departed No 10 herself.
In his first interview since being sacked last month, Mr Kwarteng also praised Rishi Sunak as a ‘very credible’ prime minister but warned him over the impending tax rises in next week’s Autumn Statement.
He told TalkTV: ‘We tried to do too much too quickly. Too much too fast.
‘I think the strategic goal was right. But I think we should have had a much more measured approach.
Her drive was 100 per cent the right thing, but I think we needed a better tactical plan to deliver what she wanted.’ He praised Miss Truss’s ‘dynamism’ and willingness to ‘hit the ground running’, but said his warnings that the Government needed to take a more ‘measured approach’ were ignored.
After his disastrous mini-Budget in September, Mr Kwarteng said to Miss Truss that she needed to ‘slow down’ future reforms but she insisted on carrying on as she only had ‘two years’ left to drive them through.
Mr Kwarteng, who is a friend of Miss Truss, said he learned of his sacking on Twitter. He added: ‘I got to Downing Street. I went into the Cabinet Room.
‘The Prime Minister was quite sort of distressed and emotional. I said, “You will have two months if you carry on like this”.’
He urged Mr Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to avoid blaming him and Miss Truss for the current dire economic situation. He insisted: ‘It wasn’t that the national debt was created by Liz Truss’s 44 days in government.’