Prime Minister Liz Truss has defended her Government's mini-Budget and its tax-cutting policies in a tough round of local radio interviews.
The Prime Minister had avoided the spotlight for several days despite market turmoil following Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.
Following last Friday's statement by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, the pound sunk to a record low against the dollar, experts including the IMF have told the Government it should make a U-turn, and the Bank of England had to launch an emergency government bond-buying programme to prevent borrowing costs from spiralling and to avoid a “material risk to UK financial stability”.
READ MORE: Bank of England launches urgent bond-buying programme to avoid 'material risk' to UK economy
This morning Ms Truss did a round of interviews on BBC local radio where she defended the Government's policies amid tough questioning about the impact of her plans. She said the Government's energy price cap would help everyone through the winter and under tough questioning insisted its tax-cutting policies were correct.
The Prime Minister told BBC Radio Leeds: “We had to take urgent action to get our economy growing, get Britain moving and also deal with inflation.
“Of course that means taking controversial and difficult decisions but I am prepared to do that as Prime Minister because what is important to me is that we get our economy moving, we make sure that people are able to get through this winter and we are prepared to do what it takes to make that happen.”
Ms Truss said it was “simply not true” when asked by BBC Radio Nottingham whether her mini-budget was a “reverse Robin Hood” that disproportionately benefited the most wealthy.
She said: “The biggest part of the package we announced is the support on energy bills, making sure that people across this country are not facing energy bills of more than £2,500 and that businesses can get through this winter.
“We were facing a situation where pubs were going to go out of business, where shops were going to go out of business.
“People were facing unaffordable energy bills and the package we presented in the energy statement, but also on the mini-budget last week – the biggest part of that is the help on energy.”
As Ms Truss insisted the wider problems were cause by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a frustrated James Hanson on Radio Bristol asked: "So the Bank of England's intervention yesterday was the fault of Vladimir Putin, was it?"
Mr Hanson also asked the PM is she still believed in "sound money" following the market's reaction to the mini-budget.
She replied: “I do believe in sound money.
“I would point out that interest rates are going up around the world. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. This is a global phenomenon.”
Pressed on whether people’s pensions were safe, Ms Truss said: “The Bank of England do that and they do a very good job of it.”
Asked by BBC Radio Kent if she will reverse the policies unveiled in the mini-budget, the PM replied: “I don’t accept the premise of the question.
“The action we’ve taken has been helping people with their fuel bills, that will start off this weekend… people are going to pay less national insurance, but we are facing difficult economic times. I don’t deny this.
“This is a global problem.
“But what is absolutely right is the UK Government has stepped in and acted at this difficult time.”
Questions for the Prime Minister from BBC Radio Kent listeners included “What on earth were you thinking?”, “How can we ever trust the Conservatives with our economy again?” and “Are you ashamed of what you’ve done?”, the show’s presenter said.
Ms Truss replied: “I think we have to remember what situation this country was facing.
“We were going into the winter with people expected to face fuel bills of up to £6,000, huge rates of inflation, slowing economic growth.
“And what we’ve done is we’ve taken action to make sure that from this weekend, people won’t be paying a typical fuel bill of more than £2,500.”
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