Bank of England announces emergency action to try to calm markets

Central bank tries to stave off ‘material risk to UK financial stability’

The Bank of England has announced that it will intervene in an attempt to calm markets after they were spooked by last week’s mini-Budget by the Liz Truss government.

The central bank said it was launching an emergency programme to buy up government bonds in a bid to stave off a “material risk to UK financial stability”.

It comes a day after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng vowed to push on with the government’s radical borrowing-fuelled £45 billion tax cut spree, despite growing calls to change course.