Latest updates: James Heappey, defence minister, also claims that Truss deserves credit for admitting she made mistake
Good morning.
Liz Truss finally did something half-sensible last night and apologised for the problems caused by the mini-budget. It is not clear yet what, if anything, this will do to improve her survival prospects, and in her interview with the BBC’s Chris Mason she also said that she would “lead the Conservatives into the next general election”.
Heappey claimed that Truss deserved credit for admitting that she made a mistake with the mini-budget. He told Sky News that her apology to the public was “a contrast to a year ago when the previous prime minister’s woes began” and Boris Johnson refused to apologise for Partygate. Heappey went on:
She has fronted up to her mistake very quickly and there are people in the parliamentary party who don’t want that to be the end of it. But for an awful lot of us we recognise this is a moment when this country needs its government to knuckle down and get back on with the day job.
Heappey said that no one in the cabinet realised the mini-budget would backfire in the way that it did. Heappey, who attends cabinet even though he is not a full member, told Times Radio:
It’d be completely disingenuous to claim that on that morning, when the cabinet was presented with the mini-budget, that there was anybody sat around the table who said that it was a bad idea. Each and every one of the measures within it were coherent with a desire to drive growth.
I think what the cabinet failed collectively to recognise is that it was an awful lot of measures being unleashed simultaneously on unsuspecting markets. And the reaction from the markets is clear.
The lights on the economy are flashing red, and the root cause is inflation. I’m worried that Liz Truss’s plans will make the situation worse. If we just put fuel on the fire of this inflation spiral, all of us, all of you, are going to just end up with higher mortgage rates, savings and pensions that are eaten away, and misery for millions.
