Fast and the spurious: PM’s wheels come off
LONDON: Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss has apologised for going “too far too fast” with her damaging reforms that triggered economic turmoil, but vowed to remain leader despite a series of humiliating climbdowns.
“I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for the mistakes that have been made … we went too far and too fast,” she told the BBC.
However, she said she was “completely committed to delivering for this country” despite pressure for her to quit.
Her government on Monday axed almost all of its debtfuelled tax cuts unveiled last month to avert fresh market chaos. The shock move by new finance chief Jeremy Hunt – who was parachuted into the job on Friday to replace sacked Kwasi Kwarteng – leaves Ms Truss’s position in a precarious state, with Conservative MP Roger Gale saying Mr Hunt was “de facto prime minister” of Britain.
Mr Hunt estimated the tax changes would raise about £32bn ($58bn) a year, after economists estimated the government faced a £60bn budget black hole. He also warned of deep spending cuts.
“The Prime Minister and I agreed yesterday to reverse almost all the tax measures announced in the growth plan three weeks ago,” Mr Hunt told parliament, flanked by a grim-faced Ms Truss.
She had earlier failed to appear in parliament to answer a question about why Mr Kwarteng was sacked last week, prompting taunts from the Labour Party that she was “scared of her own shadow”.
Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons standing in for Ms Truss, insisted: “The Prime Minister is not under a desk” but was detained on “urgent business”, which drew laughter from the opposition benches.
Ms Truss told the BBC that she still believed in a “highgrowth, low-tax economy”, but that economic stability was “my priority”.
Mr Hunt scrapped plans to axe the lowest rate of income tax, and curbed the government’s flagship energy price freeze, pulling the plug in April instead of late 2024.
After April, his department would “review” its energy support package, he said. A proposed reduction in shareholder dividend tax was also binned, along with planned tax-free shopping for tourists and a freeze on alcohol duty.
The announcement comes as Ms Truss’s governing Conservative Party tanks in the opinion polls amid the reversals and Britain’s worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Labour, riding high in the polls, said the ruling Tories were responsible for the “chaos and fiasco”.