Liz Truss finally broke her silence today but rejected calls to U-turn on her disastrous mini-Budget.
In a series of brutal BBC local radio interviews, Ms Truss was asked “where have you been?” after days of remaining silent amid turmoil in the financial markets.
As each presenter rushed through just a few minutes’ of precious time, she was also asked whether she was “ashamed of what you’ve done” and “what on earth were you thinking”.
One presenter asked: “Have you taken the keys to the country and crashed the economy?”. Another said: “It’s hard to know what is falling more since you entered Downing Street, the value of the pound or the Tory poll rating”.
In her first public comments since the mini-budget market chaos, Ms Truss defended Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s measures, insisting “urgent action” was needed.
Despite calls from opposition parties and some Tory MPs and the IMF to abandon the tax slashing measures for the richest 1%, the Prime Minister repeatedly insisted she had the “right plan”.
But she admitted the Government’s decisions have been “controversial”.
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After the Bank of England’s £65 billion bailout to stop pension funds going bust, she said: “As Prime Minister, I have to do what I believe is right for the country”.
But former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke warned: “I’ve never known a Budget to cause a financial crisis like this before.”
He added: “I still hope in two years’ time, they might look like a normal, competent, Conservative government because no Conservative government in my lifetime would ever have made a mistake of this kind”.
Columnist Dan Hodges tweeted: “If you’re just waking up, Liz Truss is a doing her regional broadcast round, and that sound you can hear is the Red Wall collapsing.”
TV historian Dan Snow added: “That was the worst provincial campaign of any of our leaders since autumn 1216 when King John, marching about dealing with a rebellion & two invasions, caught dysentery in Norfolk, lost the Crown Jewels in The Wash and died in Nottinghamshire.”
If Liz Truss thought she’d get an easy ride from the local media, she was wrong. Here are the most wounding moments.
Lost for words
Liz Truss became briefly lost for words when confronted with the effect of her policies.
BBC Radio Stoke presenter John Acres shot back she was achieving growth “by borrowing more and putting our mortgages up!”.
After a pause, she replied: “We need to borrow more this winter for the energy crisis we’re facing…”
But the presenter retorted “we’re going to spend more on mortgage fees… than we would have saved in energy [bills]” from her multi-billion-pound plan to cap average bills at £2,500 a year.
Mr Truss paused again before replying weakly: “I don’t think anybody is arguing that we shouldn’t have acted on energy”.
False claim about energy bills
She told BBC Radio Kent she was “making sure that nobody is paying fuel bills of more than £2,500”.
And she told listeners in Nottingham she was “making sure people across this country are not facing energy bills of more than £2,500.”
But the £2,500 is only the the average yearly gas and electricity bill under her two-year cap on unit prices.
People who use more will pay more. Full Fact chief executive Will Moy said: “Liz Truss has repeatedly misled listeners this morning. She must now publicly correct her mistake”.
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis warned the false claim “risks some people, possibly vulnerable elderly people, thinking they can keep the heat on max all winter”.
In other interviews, Ms Truss correctly referred to a “typical” bill.
Brutal slapdowns of ‘scripted answers’
BBC Radio Bristol presenter James Hanson took no prisoners, opening with the line: “It’s hard to know what is falling more since you entered Downing Street, the value of the pound or the Tory poll rating”.
And he told her: “I mean your Chancellor, on Friday, opened up the stable door and spooked the horses so much you could almost see the economy being dragged behind them!”
Ms Truss said she had “taken action to reduce our tax burden” to boost growth.
But he cut in: “With respect, that is the same scripted answer you’ve given to every BBC local radio station this morning!”
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Battering from listeners who ask ‘are you ashamed?’
BBC Radio Kent presenter Anna Cookson told the PM listeners had asked “what on earth were you thinking”, “how on earth can we ever trust the Conservatives again”, and “are you ashamed of what you’ve done?”.
She added: “People are worried about their mortgages and they’re tearing their hair out over their pensions. I’ve got so many messages Liz.”
The PM batted away the criticism, insisting her energy bills plan would reduce inflation by five points this winter.
But Ms Cookson read out another question which said: “What level of suffering is acceptable to ordinary households in order to achieve your perceived goal of growth sometime in the future?”
The PM said: “What I’ve been doing is taking action to help ordinary households who would have been facing fuel bills of up to £6,000”.
Ms Cookson cut in: “Haven’t you been reading the news?… my listeners are not sleeping at night”.
BBC Radio Tees told her people were “scared” about the soaring cost of mortgages as interest rates rise, and the danger to pension funds – which could reportedly have collapsed en masse if the Bank of England had not acted.
Lack of a plan for child poverty
In a clash with BBC Radio Tees, the Prime Minister suggested her tax cuts were the answer to child poverty.
Asked how she’d tackle the issue, she replied: “Well, the number one thing we need to do to help deal with the issues that families face is to help more people get into work and create those high-paid jobs.”
The Child Poverty Action Group hit back, tweeting: “Around 75% of children in poverty are in a working family. Promising more jobs without wider changes ignores the facts.”
Story of a food bank user
BBC Radio Leeds confronted the PM with a tape of local Lee, who told the station: “If it weren’t for the food bank, I wouldn’t be able to feed my children and myself. I’m just at the amount where I can’t claim any help whatsoever.”
Ms Truss admitted it’s “clearly very, very difficult for people” but insisted her help for energy bills this winter, capping average bills at £2,500 a year, would help Lee.
Yet hours earlier, her Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp had refused to promise a rise in benefits of about 10% will still happen next April.
Chris Philp told ITV ’s Peston: “I am not going to make policy commitments on live TV, it is going to be considered in the normal way.” And today he told LBC Radio: “I don’t accept the word crisis at all.”
Fracking
BBC Radio Lancashire decided to put the focus on fracking – which Liz Truss has decided to allow in a manifesto breach despite opposition in the county.
Put under questioning, the PM admitted she had not visited the county’s controversial Preston New Road fracking site, after she allowed the gas extraction method to continue.
She said: “I don’t think I’ve been to that site in the past.” The presenter retorted: “Shouldn’t you?” She replied: “Well.. er… as I’ve said, we will only go ahead with projects where there is local consent.”
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Growth
Despite vowing to “grow the size of the pie”, Ms Truss was unable to say when the “growth” she has promised will actually happen.
She said: “We won’t see the growth come through overnight but what’s important is that we’re putting this country on a better trajectory for the long term.”
The economy will only be 0.4% larger by 2027 than without her tax cuts, says new research by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Oxford Economics.
She also promised there will be more detail on help for businesses struggling to pay high energy costs, beyond a plan to cap bills already announced. But it will only come in “about two months”, she said.
Fairness
BBC Radio Nottingham got to the heart of the issue – asking whether her tax cuts for the rich were fair.
The PM dodged the question, saying: “It’s not fair to have a recession. It’s not fair to have town where you’re not having the investment.
“It’s not fair if we don’t get high paying jobs in the future because we’ve got the highest tax burden in 70 years. That’s what’s not fair.”
Last week’s mini-Budget scrapped the 45p top rate of income tax – handing 660,000 people who earn more than £150k a saving of £10,000 a year.
It also axed planned corporation tax rises, cut Stamp Duty for homebuyers, and cut the basic rates of national insurance and income tax in a way that helps millions but helps the rich far more than low earners.
Treasury minister Chris Philp admitted “that’s true” that the 45p tax cut helps the rich.
Despite the Bank of England saying we’re already in recession, Liz Truss told BBC Radio Tees: “If we have higher taxes going into difficult economic times, that is likely to lead to a recession.”