LIZ Truss’s approach to leadership looks set to be as chaotic as her predecessor’s was. The “mini-Budget” announced by her Chancellor on Friday was anything but. This wasn’t a mid-year tinkering at the edges of the nation’s finances – it was a bomb.

It was a budget for bankers and fat-cat Conservative donors. The Prime Minister and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have shown whose side they are on.

During a cost of living crisis that has plunged millions into food and energy poverty, the Tories are giving a helping hand to the already well-off and the super-wealthy.

This is a party full of people that burst a blood vessel whenever anybody dares accuse them of being out of touch or uncaring announcing a bumper pay day for people who already have more money than they’ll ever need.

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Scrapping the 45% top rate of income tax is an obscene move at a time when workers are having to visit food banks and ration their energy use. Axing the cap on bankers’ bonuses and claiming it will somehow help grow the economy insults the intelligence of ordinary people.

This isn’t about becoming an “aspiration nation” or whatever the latest meaningless buzz phrase is.

It further re-inforces the inequality that has deepened over 12 years of Tory rule.

According to calculations by the Resolution Foundation, this package of measures will mean that somebody who currently earns £1 million will gain £55,220 a year. In contrast, a worker on £20k a year will be just £157 better off – enough to put the central heating on for a few hours over winter.

Labour described the mini-Budget as “casino economics – gambling the mortgages and finances of every family in the country to keep the Tory Party happy”.

Nicola Sturgeon didn’t hold back in her comments either.

“The super-wealthy are laughing all the way to the actual bank ... while increasing numbers of the rest are relying on food banks – all thanks to the incompetence and recklessness of this failed UK Government,” she said.

Some media outlets have predicted that the Scottish Government will come under pressure to match the tax cuts announced by the UK Government.

The Scottish Tories are already trying to spin the socially divisive financial package announced by their bosses as something worth emulating and demanding that Nicola Sturgeon does so. Their half-hearted protestations are nothing but a distraction from the multiple crises engulfing the UK.

No decent country would prioritise the bonuses of bankers over the living standards of those on the lowest incomes. There was nothing in this Budget to help the people who have been absolutely hammered by 12 years of Tory austerity and brutal cuts to welfare.

The chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said the Budget was “a statement for the 1%”. “Today was a vital opportunity to provide re-assurance and support to those who need it the most, but instead the government risks a collision with reality, and the four million kids currently living in poverty in the UK will be forced to pay the price,” she said.

With less than three years to go until the next General Election, Liz Truss is keen to make her mark. She’s not got a lot of time to introduce herself to voters and show them who she is and what she stands for. But her priorities are all wrong.

This Budget is more reckless than radical. The UK is heading for a recession, inflation is sky-high and living standards are falling. If there was ever a good time to funnel even more money to the wealthy, it certainly isn’t now.

When was the last time Liz Truss visited a food bank? Does she know that the queues form outside the door long before the service opens? Does she understand that charities are buckling under the weight of demand?

If she truly understood the emotional and financial strain facing ordinary people right now, she wouldn’t be signing off on an extra £55k to somebody earning a million quid a year.

This mini-Budget is a gamble that nobody expects to pay off (beyond the pay out that the wealthy will benefit from).

If we hadn’t endured over a decade of Conservative mismanagement of the nation’s finances, then voters might have been willing to trust their predictions of growth and trickle down prosperity. As it stands, Liz Truss is presiding over a government that – only a few weeks into her premiership – shows all the tell-tale signs of decay.

There isn’t a mandate for any of this – not from Conservative voters or the wider electorate.

If she wants to take the UK down this dangerous financial path at a time of economic crisis, she should call an early election and get the permission of those who will be most adversely affected by it.