Liz Truss acknowledged mistakes over the mini-budget but said she is standing by her tax-cutting plan as she refused to rule out public spending cuts.
The British prime minister admitted she could have done more to prepare the ground for Kwasi Kwarteng’s financial statement, which spooked the markets, sent the pound plummeting, and forced a £65 billion intervention by the Bank of England to restore order.
Ms Truss said the mini-budget’s most controversial measure – the abolition of the 45 per cent tax rate on earnings over £150,000 – was not discussed with the Cabinet but was a decision made by the chancellor.
As the Conservative Party conference gets under way in Birmingham, Ms Truss faces a difficult task in reassuring the markets and Tory members unnerved by the market turbulence and opinion poll crash suffered since she took office.
“I do want to say to people I understand their worries about what has happened this week,” she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
“I do stand by the package we announced and I stand by the fact we announced it quickly, because we had to act.
“But I do accept we should have laid the ground better… I have learnt from that and I will make sure that in future we do a better job of laying the ground.”
The move to axe the top rate of income tax for the nation’s highest earners during a cost-of-living crisis and to pay for it through borrowing has been widely criticised, including by some Tory MPs.
During the interview, Ms Truss made Mr Kwarteng own the controversial decision, saying it was not discussed with the wider Cabinet.
“No, no, we didn’t. It was a decision the Chancellor made,” she said.
She was clear that pensions will rise in line with inflation, saying she has “committed to the triple lock” protecting them against price increases.
But she refused to give the same guarantee for benefits and government departmental budgets.
Not ruling out rowing back on Boris Johnson’s promise to raise benefit payments in line with inflation, she said: “This is something the Department of Work and Pensions Secretary (Chloe Smith) is looking at at the moment.
“She will make a determination on that and we will announce that this autumn.”
I understand how worried people are feeling and the difficult times we face.
That’s why we have acted urgently to support people with their energy bills and put the UK on a path to higher growth.#CPC22 pic.twitter.com/b3rBhzotcS— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 2, 2022
The UK prime minister repeatedly refused to rule out cuts to public services, saying she would not pre-empt Mr Kwarteng’s medium-term fiscal plan in November.
“What I’m going to do is make sure we get value for money for the taxpayer. But I’m very, very committed to making sure we’ve got excellent frontline public services,” she said.
When it was put to her that some of her own MPs fear rising interest rates and more taxpayers’ cash being eaten up will lead to spending cuts, she said: “I don’t accept that argument and I will do what I can to win the hearts and minds of my colleagues across the Conservative Party because I believe we need to grow the size of the pie.”
Ms Truss defended the dramatic break with past Conservative policy on stewardship of the public finances despite not having her own mandate at a general election.
She said people had voted for a “different future” in 2019, with hopes for investment in towns and cities, higher wages and economic growth.
“That is what our plan will deliver. I’m confident it will deliver. I’m absolutely confident that what we are doing on speeding up road projects, unleashing investment from the City, reducing taxes will deliver that,” she said.
“I’m not saying it’s not going to be difficult – we do face a very turbulent and stormy time – but it will deliver, it will deliver on the promises we made.”
Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove was scathing about the plan, claiming the abolition of the 45p tax rate and lifting caps on bankers’ bonuses at a time when people are facing hardship displays “the wrong values”.
Pressed on whether he will vote for the package in the Commons, he said: “I don’t believe it’s right.”
Another opinion poll illustrated the scale of the challenge facing Ms Truss to assert her authority over the party she only assumed leadership of in September.
The survey by Opinium put Labour on 46%, 19 points clear of the Conservatives on 27%. On the issue of the economy it found that a one-point lead for the Tories a week ago had become a 19-point advantage for Labour.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it is “unacceptable” that neither the country nor Parliament has had any say on the measures despite the chaos wreaked on the financial markets.
“The economy is not a laboratory experiment for the maddest scientists of the Conservative Party. Mortgages, pensions and family finances are not casino chips for a Government intoxicated by dogma,” he said.
“There are many decent Conservative MPs who know this. My message to them is that Labour will work with anyone to ensure some semblance of economic sanity is restored.”
Tory Party chairman Jake Berry said there will be a “drive to trim fat in terms of government expenditure”.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that the public sector should look at its expenses in the same way that every single household is doing in this country”, he told Sky News.
He played down the impact of opinion polls showing double-digit Labour leads, saying: “I know and believe that, when we get to that general election and when we have delivered that growing economy, when we have ensured that the benefit is felt by every household in this country, that it will be a very different result than shown in that snap poll a few days after the Government has done a mini-fiscal event.”
