“I am not going anywhere,” Kwasi Kwarteng declared on Thursday (Friday AEDT), shortly before he rushed out of a reception at the UK ambassador’s residence in Washington on a rainy night to catch the last plane back to London.

By Friday lunchtime London time, the chancellor had been sacked after his debt-fuelled “mini” budget sent panic through markets and created political carnage. His 38 days in office was the second-shortest tenure in almost two centuries, pipped only by a politician who died of a heart attack.

Financial Times