The UK government announced it will drop the least popular provision in its newly-debuted mini-budget, which was a tax cut for its highest earners. On Monday, Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng made the announcement that the government was jettisoning the proposal, which triggered substantial public backlash, and threw markets into upheaval

In a statement, Kwarteng said, “It is clear that the abolition of the 45% tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our economy. As a result, I’m announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45% tax rate. We get it, and we have listened.”

Leading the new UK government, on September 23rd Prime Minister Liz Truss had announced a package of investment incentives and tax cuts, which was nicknamed the “mini-budget.” However Truss’ own conservative party had criticized the proposals, as did the pubic, and the financial markets. Although they claimed the package would be funded by government borrowing, neither Truss, nor Kwarteng could explain a mechanism by which that would be done.

One provision of the plan was a lowering of the top tax rate paid on income, by those with incomes over £150,000 ($166,770). Their tax rate would have dropped from 45% to 40%. As a cost of living crisis raged across Britain, fueled by inflation and rapidly rising energy costs, the public quickly soured on the proposal.

Senior lawmakers quickly turned on the policy, deriding the idea of cutting government spending and increasing government borrowing, all to provide a tax cut to the already wealthy. Meanwhile economists pointed out that in flooding money back into the economic system, the policy would have exactly the opposite effect the Bank of England was trying to create by tightening monetary policy, and could exacerbate already soaring inflation.

Immediately after the announcement of the mini-budget, the British pound sank to an all-time low, and UK bonds began to sell of at a historic pace. The Bank of England quickly acted, purchasing £65 billion ($73 billion) in gilts to calm the markets.

After it was announced the tax cut was being withdrawn Monday, the pound jumped. It lost some of the gains subsequently, but was still up 0.6% at 8″40 GMT.