Liz Truss was under fire from her own MPs as they demanded more U-turns on her tax-slashing agenda after she ruled out spending cuts to balance the books.
The Prime Minister’s leadership was in renewed peril as she was accused of “trashing the last 10 years” of the Tories’ record at a meeting with backbenchers. MPs piled pressure on her to restore market confidence in her government, with reports suggesting she is facing mounting calls to reverse or delay her plan to cancel a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%, due in April.
Ms Truss has insisted this and other tax cuts will boost growth, but the so-far unfunded measures in Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget have sparked chaos in the financial markets. Mel Stride, the Tory chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, said that given Ms Truss’s commitments to protect public spending, there was a question over whether any plan that did not include “at least some element of further row back” on the £43 billion tax-slashing package can reassure investors.
