Liz Truss has announced yet another humiliating U-turn after admitting her mini-Budget went "further and faster" than markets were ready for - but refused to say sorry. The PM, who is in a desperate bid to save her job, announced that she will hike corporation tax - despite her promises not to.
It comes just hours after she sacked Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and replaced him with former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Defiantly refusing to quit, Truss told reporters that she "had to act in the national interest" - and did not apologise for the chaos she has unleashed. In a nine-minute Downing Street press conference she also dodged a question on whether she had any credibility left.
The embattled Prime Minister left the room after just four short questions as journalists shouted "aren't you going to say sorry?"
Confirming that she was scrapping her pledge not to raise corporation tax, she said: "It is clear that parts of our mini-Budget went further and faster than markets were expecting, so the way we are delivering our mission now has to change." Her leadership has been beset by chaos, with Tory plotters already making moves to get rid of her. Earlier the government announced that Kwarteng's services had been dispensed with after the disastrous mini-Budget caused financial chaos and opened a huge divide within the Tory party.
Plots are already underway to get rid of Truss, who had already been forced to U-turn on a massive tax cut for Britain's highest earners. In a hugely embarrassing move for the Prime Minister, she confirmed that corporation tax will be hiked by more than £19 billion for big companies across the UK.
It flies in the face of her pledge to cancel the plan introduced by former chancellor Rishi Sunak to raise the corporation tax rate to 25% in April next year.
