[Politics] Rishi Sunak refuses to apologise six times for Truss's economic turmoil

[FazzNoth]

The prime minister said his predecessor made mistakes with her mini-budget but would not apologise for the financial pain it caused many people in the UK. He admitted he has a difficult task now to fill the large economic black hole.

 

The prime minister, who is in Bali for the G20 summit, refused six times today to say sorry for the decisions his predecessor made, which caused severe and continuing financial turbulence.

He acknowledged that "mistakes were made" by Ms Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, whose unfunded £45bn tax cuts sent mortgage rates soaring, and created a run on sterling and a gilt market freefall. 

 

However, every time he was asked by Sky News' political editor Beth Rigby to apologise, he repeated that errors were made and said: "What I want to do now is fix them."

He admitted there are "difficult decisions" to be made to get the economy back on track, but he is "prepared to do difficult things".

Mr Sunak added: "I spent the summer talking about the challenges that our country faces, talking about what I thought was required to grapple with those and fix them to build a foundation which we could provide jobs and growth and prosperity for people over time.

"So I think that people know where I stand on all of these issues. And now that I'm prime minister, I'm going to make sure that we deliver on that."

Although Mr Sunak spoke out against Ms Truss's plans for the economy during the summer's leadership campaign, he said he would not vote against her mini-budget.He said since he took over the reins, there is now "much more stability in the UK's financial position in terms of what the UK is paying to borrow money and what's happened to the pound".

 

Mini-budget cost UK £30bn

Analysis released on Monday by the independent Resolution Foundation think tank found Ms Truss's mini-budget cost the UK £30bn, doubling the sum the Treasury says will have to be raised by Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor.

Mr Hunt will seek to tackle that £60m "black hole" in the autumn statement on Thursday.

The chancellor told Sky News over the weekend there will be tax rises for everybody, although the most wealthy will have to contribute more, and he will announce a rise in the national living wage.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/rishi-sunak-refuses-to-apologise-six-times-for-trusss-economic-turmoil-12748038