Liz Truss says her government “had to take decisive action” in order to get the economy growing.
Speaking to the BBC in a raft of local radio interviews this morning, the prime minister said “controversial and difficult decisions” needed to be taken to improve the situation in the UK.
But she said she was “prepared to do that.. because what is important to me is we get our economy moving, we make sure that people are able to get through this winter and we are prepared to do what it takes to make that happen”.
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Markets were thrown into turmoil after the government announced its mini-budget on Friday, which included a swathe of tax cuts – such as scrapping the 45p top rate, reversing the National Insurance rise and cancelling an increase to corporation tax.
Economists feared the amount of borrowing needed to pay for the policies, and as a result the pound plummeted and the Bank of England was forced to intervene by launching a temporary bond-buying programme as an emergency measure to prevent “material risk” to UK financial stability.
Yet Ms Truss told the BBC the government had “done the right thing by taking action urgently to deal with inflation, to deal with the economic slow down, and to deal with energy bills” – despite the trouble that has followed.
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But questioned on whether that policy and others were fair to the wider public, the PM said: “The reality is having lower taxes across the board… helps everybody because it helps grow the economy and for too long the debate in this country has been about distribution, not how we grow our economy.
“It is not fair to have a recession, it is not fair to have a town where you are not getting the investment, it is not fair if we don’t get high paying jobs in the future because we have got the highest tax burden in 70 years. That’s what is not fair.”
She said the Treasury was “working closely” with the Bank of England, but claimed there were “difficult markets around the world” and the problem in the UK was not homegrown.
