THE past week in UK politics has been one of the most bizarre in history.

Never has a new Prime Minister seen such a poor first few weeks.

Liz Truss and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng oversaw the shambolic handling of the UK’s finances last week.

Pension funds were on the verge of collapse and required £65bn buyback of Government bills and bonds.

It comes as the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) confirmed they offered to provide a forecast to the Chancellor to go alongside his fiscal statement, but that it was not commissioned by the UK Government. This was despite the OBR confirming it was able to produce an updated forecast that satisfied the legal requirements of the Charter for Budget Responsibility.

Now in the aftermath, we hear the Prime Minister refuse to rule out her Government slashing benefits and cutting £18 billion from public services – which threatens Scotland’s budget and our NHS – to pay for her and Kwarteng’s staggering incompetence in mishandling the economy.

The fallout from the new administration’s mini-budget has been huge, taking a wrecking ball to the UK’s finances, endangering the pension funds of millions, causing banks to withdraw mortgages and leaving millions of families in East Lothian in deep distress.

We now learn that despite the OBR publishing their forecast to the UK Government, the Treasury will delay the publication until November 23. This is simply unacceptable. It’s been a disastrous first few weeks of the Truss premiership but, if the rhetoric from the Conservatives is to be believed, much worse is yet to come.

Within days of taking office, we have once again seen the devastating consequences of Scotland being shackled to this outdated, corrupt Westminster system. Mortgages, pensions and savings of the people of East Lothian are all being badly hit – and there is no plan to fix it.

Truss’s plan to impose a new wave of Tory austerity cuts is utterly obscene. After 12 years of Tory mismanagement and Brexit damage, the UK already had the worst levels of poverty and inequality in north-west Europe. The UK Government should be reversing the damage it has caused, not doubling down on cuts and pushing more people into poverty.

These actions underline the need for Scotland to become an independent country, so we can escape Westminster control and get rid of the Tories for good.