KWASI Kwarteng has been accused of a “disgraceful” refusal to shoulder the blame for the damage inflicted on the public finances by his disastrous mini-budget.

In his first TV interview since being sacked last month, the former Chancellor admitted there was “turbulence” after he announced £70billion of unfunded tax cuts on September 23.

His mini-budget saw the pound slump, the cost of Government borrowing rocket, mortgage rates jump, and the Bank of England forced to intervene to stop pension funds collapsing.

However speaking to TalkTV on Thursday, Mr Kwarteng refused to apologise for the financial turmoil, and rejected any suggestion Liz Truss’s short-lived administration was to blame for the current state of the public finances.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who reversed almost all of the mini-budget, is expected to cut spending and hike taxes in next week’s budget to help plug a £60 billion black hole.

But Mr Kwarteng said: “The only thing that they could possibly blame us for is the interest rates and interest rates have come down and the gilt rates have come down.

“It wasn’t that the national debt was created by Liz Truss’s 44 days in government.”

He went on: “They [Mr Hunt and Rishi Sunak] reversed all the measures, and Liz Truss herself reversed corporation tax going up to 25p. 

“The only thing that hasn't been reversed is national insurance [being cut]. 

“But everything else has been swept away. 

“So there isn’t a black hole and the interest rates and the gilt rate funding the debt is exactly the same as it was before the mini-budget. 

“So the black hole hasn’t been caused by the mini-budget. 

“It’s something that Jeremy and Rishi and their officials are going to have to tackle on their own regardless of what happened in the budget. 

“How can that be the fault if they reversed all the measures?”

The comments suggest Mr Kwarteng is trying to avoid being blamed for Thursday's budget, and point to growing tensions in Tory ranks about the prospect of raising taxes and squeezing public services.

In a dig at his predecessor, Mr Hunt responded to Mr Kwarteng’s interview by saying that he would show how he was going to pay for his policies, an apparent reference to Mr Kwarteng relying on borrowing and refusing to publish an independent analysis.

Mr Huntsaid: “When we [the UK Government under Ms Truss] produced a fiscal statement that didn’t show how we were going to bring our debts down over the medium term, the markets reacted very badly.

“So we have learned that you can’t fund either spending or borrowing without showing how you are going to pay for it and that is what I will do.”

Labour’s shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “It is really disgraceful that Kwasi Kwarteng has the cheek to do this interview. 

“He crashed the economy with his mini-budget just a few weeks ago. It’s caused untold damage to people. 

“Anyone coming off a mortgage deal will be blaming the Conservatives, including Kwasi Kwarteng, for those huge increases, up to £500 a month more in interest payments because of the decisions by Conservative chancellors over the last few months, including Kwasi Kwarteng.”

The Scottish Greens also said Mr Kwarteng could not duck responsibility for his actions.

MSP Ross Greer said: “Kwasi Kwarteng can try all he wants to avoid responsibility for a disaster he was the joint architect of, but we all know how laughable that claim is.

"His mini-budget was the catalyst for the economic crash that happened on his watch. He tested the libertarian Tory fantasies he shared with Liz Truss to their limits and they proved to be every bit as disastrous as many of us warned they would be.

"There is no doubt that Liz Truss was ultimately and primarily responsible. She made many reckless decisions, including the appointment of Kwasi Kwarteng. It's ludicrous to claim that as Chancellor he wasn't really responsible for what happened though.”