Sunak refuses to apologise for Truss’s errors

RISHI Sunak refused to apologise for the mistakes of Liz Truss’s government that are expected to add billions of pounds of tax hikes and spending cuts to his budget.

The Prime Minister instead insisted yesterday that he will make “difficult decisions that are required to fix” the missteps of his Conservative predecessor in No 10. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is looking to find up to £60bn from a combination of hikes and spending cuts in tomorrow’s Autumn Statement.

Economists at the Resolution Foundation have calculated that Ms Truss’s disastrous so-called minibudget exacerbated the problem to the tune of £30 billion, while causing chaos in the mortgage market.

At the G20 summit, Mr Sunak repeatedly refused to apologise for the Tories’ handling of the economy. When pressed by Sky News, Mr Sunak said he has acknowledged “mistakes were made”, adding: “What I want to do now is fix them”.

“I think I demonstrated over the summer that I’m prepared to be honest with the country about the challenges we face and to make the difficult decisions that are required to fix them,” he said. He did not repeat the comments of his Chancellor that “we’re all going to be paying a bit more tax” but said the approach tomorrow will be “fair and compassionate”.

Mr Sunak told BBC News: “The number one challenge we face is inflation. We’re not alone in that, actually, for example, Germany and Italy have inflation that is even higher than ours at the moment.

“And it’s important that we get a grip of that, it’s important that we limit the increase in mortgage rates that people are experiencing. And the best way to do that is to get a grip of our borrowing levels and have our debt on a sustainable basis falling.”

MPs supported a Commons motion calling for Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng to waive at least £6,000 of their ministerial severance payments. Shadow communities secretary Lisa Nandy told the Commons it is “obscene” the Conservative former prime minister is in line to receive a severance payment of “almost £19,000” and the former chancellor is “set to rake in £17,000”.

The remarks from Ms Nandy came before MPs approved Labour’s motion “on the nod” without a formal vote.