British Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has had a rough start to his new job. Now, it has come to light that Kwarteng met senior executives of Saudi Arabian oil firms in rather clandestine meetings when he was the business secretary, per a Guardian report.
The publication stated that Kwarteng met the chief executives of Saudi Aramco, Sabic and the chair of Alfanar Group, an industrial conglomerate in January, earlier this year when he visited KSA on a two-day trip.
The information was accessed using the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) which revealed that the meetings were undisclosed.
Read more: Proposed UK tax cuts caused ‘a little turbulence’, says finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in its originally published report had made no mention of Kwarteng’s meetings with the Saudia Arabian oil executives.
According to the rules, meetings with foreign government figures is not required to be punched into the records but meetings or even chance encounters with business executives is required to be declared.
Minutes of the meeting acquired by the publication reveals a section titled “Aramco flight talk” wherein Kwarteng discussed the “history and opportunities for the company”.
However, other elements of the meeting discussed in the said ‘Aramco flight’ were redacted by the government, citing it could harm UK-Saudi relations.
Read more: UK ‘will need $66bn spending cuts’ to bounce back from unfunded tax cuts
Notably, Saudi Aramco is the world’s biggest oil producer while Sabic is the world’s fourth-largest petrochemical company.
Experts say that meeting with top officials of such companies is expected to be lodged in the official records. However, the fact that it was omitted suggests that the minister was being lobbied when he was responsible for UK’s energy policy.
While the UK government remained opaque on the meetings, Sabic in a Twitter post mentioned that the then UK Business Secretary indeed visited the company facility,
We were honored with the visit of Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Business Secretary, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the accompanying delegation to United Company, where they were briefed about the world’s largest CO2 purification and liquefaction plant.#SABIC pic.twitter.com/bL5PhwkLF1
— SABIC I سابك (@SABIC) February 1, 2022
The UK has been going through a harrowing energy crisis and the ordinary Britons are expected to receive inflated energy bills this winter. Thus, the secret meetings of Kwarteng which could have influenced the energy plans of the UK are being scrutinized microscopically.
As reported by WION, Kwarteng has had a troubled start to his new job. Within days of announcing his ambitious tax cut plans, he was forced to take a volta face on the 45 per cent tax cut for the top earners.
Additionally, he caught flak for celebrating with champagne after delivering the mini-budget. After the controversy snowballed, the UK finance minister said it ‘wasn’t the best way to go’.
“I think it was a difficult call and I totally get how it looks. I just feel that it was something that I was signed up to do and I had to do…With hindsight it probably wasn’t the best way to go.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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