Prime minister took only four questions but showed lack of contrition in lightning fast appearance that will not have secured goodwill
Was that it? By the time Liz Truss stood up for her press conference (although a briefing where only four questions were allowed barely counts), we already knew that she was about to abandon the key thrust of her mini-budget, and that her chancellor had been sacked. The big question was whether Truss would be able to survive herself. Her performance will have done little or nothing to persuade her MPs, or anyone else, that she will, or even that she should.
Truss said that the corporation tax rise planned by Rishi Sunak, that she campaigned to abandon during the Tory leadership campaign, would go ahead anyway. She said this was in response to the fact that her mini-budget “went further and faster than markets were expecting”. (Until Friday she has implied that global factors, not the mini-budget, were mainly to blame for the recent market turmoil.) But then she tried to explain that she was being consistent with the mission she set out during the leadership contest (boosting growth), even though it is obvious that her strategy has gone up in flames. And – crucially – she failed to explain why, if the chancellor had to go, she should not quit too.
