Truss says she has ‘right plan’ on economy and won’t change course

 

Truss says she has ‘right plan’ on economy and won’t change course

 

In series of local BBC interviews, prime minister insists she is prepared to make the difficult decisions

 

Peter Walker Political correspondent

@peterwalker99

Thu 29 Sep 2022 09.19 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/29/truss-says-she-has-right-plan-on-economy-mini-budget

 

Liz Truss has insisted her government’s economic policy is on the right course despite the need for emergency intervention from the Bank of England, saying she was “prepared to take difficult decisions” and would not change policy.

 

In a round of interviews with BBC local radio stations, her first public statements since warnings from the International Monetary Fund and the bank’s intervention to prevent a run on pension funds, the prime minister said people would feel the benefits in the longer term.

 

“This is the right plan that we have set out,” Truss told BBC Radio Norfolk. “Of course there will always be people who will oppose a particular measures. And it’s not necessarily easy. But we have to do it.”

 

Pressed repeatedly by the presenters about why her government had cut taxes primarily for richer people in Friday’s mini-budget despite inflationary pressures, prompting a decline in the pound and a rise in the cost of government debt, Truss rejected any idea of error.

 

“Of course, some of these decisions are difficult,” she told BBC Radio Lancashire. “Some people don’t like them. But what I couldn’t do is allow the situation to drift. So that is why my government has taken urgent action.”

 

With a number of Tory MPs openly mutinous ahead of next week’s Conservative party conference in Birmingham, Truss tried to argue that the issues faced by the UK were little different to those of other countries.

 

“This is a global problem,” she told BBC Radio Kent. “But what is absolutely right is the UK government stepped in and acted at this difficult time. We’ve seen difficult markets around the world because of the very difficult international situation we face. And what our government has done is we’ve taken decisive action.”

 

Stressing that the biggest part of the mini-budget involved help for energy bills, Truss said the government had sought to both curb inflation and help set “a better trajectory for the long term” with growth and wages.

 

She said: “Of course, that involves taking difficult decisions and as prime minister, I’m prepared to take difficult decisions and do the right thing.”

 

There is increasing speculation that ministers could seek significant cuts to public spending to help balance the loss of revenue from tax cuts, which will disproportionately assist richer people.

 

It is also possible that increases to benefits and pensions, which had been due to rise in line with inflation, could be reduced.

 

Speaking earlier to Sky News, Chris Philp, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said departments would be expected to find efficiency savings.

 

He said: “The efficiency and prioritisation exercise is designed to firstly make absolutely sure we stick to those spending limits and secondly make sure that we are prioritising expenditure, not on anything that is wasteful, but on things that really deliver frontline public services and drive economic growth.

 

 

“We are going to stick rigidly to those spending limits because it is important to be financially responsible.”

 

Asked if he felt regret for the turmoil in the markets after Friday’s fiscal statement, Philp said: “No one’s perfect but I’m not going to apologise for having a plan to grow the economy.”