British PM Liz Truss apologises for economic plan

Liz Truss. Pic/AFP

Britain's Prime Minister Liz Truss apologised for "mistakes" in her programme that caused investor confidence to evaporate and her poll ratings to plunge before nearly all of it was finally shredded on Monday, but said she would not step down.

"I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for the mistakes that have been made," Truss told the BBC. "I wanted to act but to help people with their energy bills to deal with the issue of high taxes, but we went too far and too fast."

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Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, who was appointed on Friday after Truss sacked her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng, jettisoned the remaining major planks of her tax-cutting agenda on Monday, including scaling back her vast energy support scheme. Asked if she was now prime minister in name only, Truss said she had appointed Hunt because she knew she had to change direction. "It would have been completely irresponsible for me not to act in the national interest in the way where I have," she said. "It was right that we changed policy." Truss and Kwarteng attempted to upend British fiscal policy by unveiling 45 billion pounds of unfunded tax cuts last month to snap the economy out of stagnation. But the response from bond investors was brutal and borrowing costs surged.

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