BIRMINGHAM, England – British Prime Minister Liz Truss tried to reassure her party and the public on Sunday by saying she should have done more to “lay the ground” for an economic plan that saw the pound fall to record lows and government borrowing costs soar.
On the first day of her governing Conservative Party’s annual conference, Truss, in office for less than a month, adopted a softer tone by saying she would support the public during a difficult winter and beyond.
She defended her “growth plan,” a package of tax-cutting measures that investors and many economists have criticized for setting out billions of pounds of spending while offering few details on how it would be paid for in the short term.
Truss said it was the right direction, suggesting critics did not realize the depth of Britain’s problems and that she should have done more to explain them — an argument that market traders and investors have dismissed as a reason for the falls in the pound and the increase in borrowing costs last week.
But in what some Conservative lawmakers worry will hurt their prospects at an election due in 2024, she did not deny that the plan would require spending cuts for public services and refused to commit to increasing welfare benefits in line with inflation while endorsing a tax cut for the wealthiest.
