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Truss makes a U-turn

On the second day of the ruling Conservative Party’s annual conference, finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted he was “not proceeding” with the removal of the top 45% income tax rate, adding it had become a “distraction”…reports Asian Lite News

The government on Monday scrapped plans to axe its top income tax rate just 10 days after a debt-driven budget sparked turmoil on markets and fierce criticism during a cost-of-living crisis.

On the second day of the ruling Conservative Party’s annual conference, finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted he was “not proceeding” with the removal of the top 45-percent income tax rate, adding it had become a “distraction”.

The announcement also marked the first major policy U-turn under British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office less than one month ago.

“It is clear that the abolition of the 45 per cent tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country. As a result, I’m announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the … rate.

“We get it, and we have listened.”

The announcement also came after former cabinet ministers Grant Shapps and Michael Gove voiced opposition over unfunded tax cuts unveiled by Kwarteng in his controversial mini-budget on September 23.

Kwarteng had proposed to remove the 45-percent rate applied to Britons earning more than $167,400 per year.

The so-called mini budget had sent the pound plunging to a record dollar low and sent bond yields spiking on fears of a borrowing splurge.

The budget included a costly freeze on energy bills for individuals and businesses, in an attempt to cushion fallout from key gas producer Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chancellor defends decision

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has confirmed he will not pursue cutting the 45p rate of income tax on people earning more than £150,000 a year.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Kwarteng confirmed the U-turn 10 days after the plan was announced in the mini-budget. He said that the plans had become a “distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing the country”.

Labour slams move

Meanwhile, Labour called for the government to “reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle down strategy”.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the U-turn came “too late for the families who will pay higher mortgages and higher prices for years to come”.

Plans to scrap the top rate of tax had seen remarkable opposition from the markets, opposition parties and a growing number of Tory MPs.

Increasingly, it seemed Truss did not have the numbers to get it through Parliament.

On Sunday, senior Tory Michael Gove hinted he would not vote for the plan when it came to Parliament, saying “I don’t believe it’s right”.

The former cabinet minister said the PM’s decision was “a display of the wrong values”.

Shapps also urged Truss to U-turn, warning her not to have a “tin ear” to voters’ concerns about rising living costs.

The U-turn, suggestions of which were first reported by the Sun, comes on the second day of the Conservative conference in Birmingham, with Mr Kwarteng due to speak later on Monday.

The pound jumped on the news, rising by more than a cent against the dollar to $1.1263, before falling back.

The currency touched a record low last week after Mr Kwarteng’s mini-budget – which contained around £45bn of unfunded tax cuts – created turmoil on the markets.

Conservative MPs urge Truss’s removal

Three-quarters of UK voters, including a staggering 71 per cent of those who backed the Conservatives at the last general election, believe the prime minister, Liz Truss, and the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have “lost control” of the economy, according to a devastating poll for the Observer on the eve of the Tory conference, local media reported.

The survey by Opinium – which also reveals that Labour has extended its lead by a massive 14 percentage points in the last week alone, from five points to 19 points, and that Truss’s ratings are now lower than Boris Johnson’s at the height of the Partygate scandal – comes as some Tory MPs are beginning to demand the new prime minister’s removal from No 10 after less than a month in office.

Other senior party figures are warning that the damage to the party’s reputation for economic management resulting from Kwarteng’s tax-cutting budget, is so serious that it will take many years to repair, The Guardian reported.

Tory peer Gavin Barwell, a former MP and chief of staff to Theresa May, writing in Sunday’s Observer, says the Truss government “has thrown away the Conservative party’s reputation for sound management of the public finances” in its first month in office, adding that “it will take years to undo all the damage”.

In the last seven days, the Tories have surrendered a narrow one-point lead on the question of economic management and now trail Labour by 19 points.

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Truss Faces Poll Rout

A YouGov/Times poll placed Labour 33 points ahead of the Conservatives, believed to be the largest lead for Labour in any recorded poll since 1998…reports Asian Lite News

Labour has surged to record leads in multiple polls in the wake of the economic turmoil after the government’s mini-budget.

A YouGov/Times poll placed Labour 33 points ahead of the Conservatives, believed to be the largest lead for Labour in any recorded poll since 1998, when the-then PM Tony Blair was enjoying his “honeymoon period”.

And a Survation poll had Labour on a 21-point lead – also the largest Labour lead the pollsters have ever recorded. Some 49% would vote for Labour while 28% for Conservatives, the survey found.

A Deltapoll/Mirror poll put Labour 19 points ahead of the Tories, with 48% of voters from Tuesday to Thursday saying they would vote for Labour and 29% for the Conservatives.

Much of the YouGov poll’s Labour lead was buoyed by 17% of people who had previously voted for Boris Johnson saying they would now vote for Labour – double that of a week ago.

And 50% of those who voted Lib Dem in 2019 would now vote for Labour, up from 27% at the start of this week. 26% of Tory voters also told YouGov they now do not know who to vote for.

Reacting to the YouGov poll, a Tory MP told Sky News: “You’re bloody joking, that’s annihilation.”

Election Maps UK collated the YouGov data and found if a general election was held tomorrow Labour would gain 296 seats to have a majority of 346, with the Tories losing 304 seats, leaving them with just 61 MPs.

On Thursday evening, the Treasury confirmed Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng will meet the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog, on Friday.

Much of the market turmoil following the mini-budget has been blamed on the lack of an OBR economic forecast, which was not requested by the Treasury.

The Treasury insisted it was not an emergency meeting after the powerful cross-party Treasury Committee earlier demanded Mr Kwarteng bring forward the full forecast and the medium-term budget planned for 23 November.

Bounce for Labour

Sir Keir Starmer has enjoyed a bounce following the Labour conference this week, which was generally seen as positive for the opposition leader.

His popularity has boomed even more as the markets continue to react negatively to the chancellor’s £45bn package of tax cuts revealed less than a week ago.

Even since Tuesday, four days after the mini-budget, Labour has continued to gain in the polls.

Thursday’s YouGov poll gave Labour a nine-point boost from a poll it did from last Friday to Sunday, while the Tories went down seven points.

However, in a series of interviews on Thursday – their first since the pound reached a record low on Monday – Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng doubled down as they blamed global events for the economic turmoil.

The prime minister insisted the government took “decisive action” that will aid growth and said they had to take “urgent action” to kick-start the economy and protect consumers from rising energy costs.

During a visit to an engine plant in Darlington, the chancellor said the plan is aimed at “protecting people right across the country” and was “absolutely essential” for growth.

Kwarteng also tried to rally Tory MPs on Thursday as several have spoken of their despair and anger at the economic plans and the subsequent turmoil.

In a message, he wrote: “Colleagues…I understand your concern. We are one team and need to remain focused. The only people who win if we divide is the Labour Party.”

Conservative chair of the powerful Treasury Committee of cross-party MPs, Mel Stride, also wrote to Kwarteng on Thursday demanding he publishes the independent Office for Budget Responsibility’s full forecast by the end of October instead of 23 November, and also bring forward the budget planned for then as well.

Stride said it is “hard to conclude other than that an absence of a forecast has in some part driven the lack of confidence in markets”.

He added: “Some have formed the unfortunate impression that the government may be seeking to avoid scrutiny, possibly on account of expecting the OBR forecast to be unsupportive of the achievement of the economic outcomes the government expects from the growth plan, including 2.5% trend growth in the medium term.”

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IMF sounds alarm on Britain’s tax cut plans

Prime Minister Liz Truss Arrives in No10 Downing Street. Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks on the phone to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Ukraine. Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

She added the financial turmoil of recent days appeared to be confined to Britain rather than spreading to the global economy and that financial markets that had sold off sharply were “functioning well”…reports Asian Lite News

The opposition Labour party seized on the IMF statement, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves saying it “should set alarm bells ringing in” Westminster and calling on the government to “urgently lay out how it will fix the problems it has created”

The IMF has launched a biting attack on the UK’s plan to implement £45bn of debt-funded tax cuts, urging the government to “re-evaluate” the plan and warning that the “untargeted” package threatens to stoke soaring inflation.

The multilateral lender said it was “closely monitoring” developments in the UK and was “engaged with the authorities” after Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled the tax cuts last week, sparking a collapse in the value of sterling and a surge in the country’s borrowing costs.

“Given elevated inflation pressures in many countries, including the UK, we do not recommend large and untargeted fiscal packages at this juncture,” the IMF said in a statement. “It is important that fiscal policy does not work at cross purposes to monetary policy.”

Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, said the US was “monitoring developments very closely”. She declined to be drawn on the merits of the plan but noted that the US and the UK had “significant inflation problems and central banks focused on . . . bring[ing] inflation down”.

She added the financial turmoil of recent days appeared to be confined to Britain rather than spreading to the global economy and that financial markets that had sold off sharply were “functioning well”.

At an event hosted by the Economic Club of Washington DC, Brian Deese, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said he “wasn’t surprised” by the reaction to the UK’s fiscal plan, saying “it puts the [central bank] in a position of potentially having to move even tighter”.

He added: “It is particularly important to maintain a focus on fiscal prudence.”

In its first assessment of the UK situation, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, offered critical commentary, saying that large unfunded tax cuts would lead to rising borrowing costs and lower growth.

Though it did not change the UK’s credit rating, Moody’s warned that a “large unfunded fiscal stimulus . . . will prompt more aggressive monetary policy tightening, weighing on growth in the medium term”.

The IMF’s pointed criticism of Kwarteng’s fiscal plan came as some business leaders in the UK hit out at the tax cuts, while the Bank of England’s chief economist warned it would need to react with a “significant monetary response”.

The IMF said it understood the UK government’s desire to help “families and businesses deal with the energy [price] shock” while “boosting growth” with supply-side reforms.

But it raised the concerns that the tax cuts, which will disproportionately benefit high earners, “will likely increase inequality”. It called on Kwarteng to use the budget on November 23 to “provide support that is more targeted and re-evaluate the tax measures”.

Following the IMF statement, the UK Treasury said the November budget would “set out further details on the government’s fiscal rules, including ensuring that debt falls as a share of GDP in the medium term”. It added the government had acted “at speed to protect households and businesses through this winter and the next”.

The opposition Labour party seized on the IMF statement, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves saying it “should set alarm bells ringing in” Westminster and calling on the government to “urgently lay out how it will fix the problems it has created”.

Eswar Prasad, a former senior IMF official, said: “This is a hard-hitting and pointed criticism that pulls few punches. This is as close as IMF language comes to calling a set of policies irresponsible, ill-advised and ill-timed.”

Mark Sobel, a former US Treasury official and ex-IMF representative, said the statement was “unusual in its sharpness” but that he approved of the fund being “a ruthless truth teller”.

Adnan Mazarei, former deputy director at the IMF, described the statement as “on the strong side” and said the fund was “concerned, especially about the risks of a spillover”, which he described as “tangible”.

He added: “The UK authorities have embarked on an unnecessarily risky path.”

Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Bridgewater, said the UK was “operating like the government of an emerging country”.

Dalio’s remarks came after Larry Summers, former US Treasury secretary, on Monday called the policy “utterly irresponsible” and said the violent market reaction was “a hallmark of situations where credibility has been lost”.

The pair joined Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta branch of the Federal Reserve, who this week warned that the UK’s plan increased economic uncertainty and raised the odds of a global recession.

Last week, Jason Furman, an economic adviser to former US president Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter: “I can’t remember a more uniformly negative reaction to any policy announcement by both economists and financial markets than the UK’s policy.”

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Truss thanks Saudi Crown Prince  

The crown prince also said he looked forward to working with Truss for the benefit of the Kingdom and the UK…reports Asian Lite News

Britain’s prime minister thanked Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in securing the release of five British detainees held by Russia-backed forces in Ukraine last week, Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.

Liz Truss expressed her thanks during a phone call with Prince Mohammed during which he congratulated her on her new role and wished her success.

The crown prince also said he looked forward to working with Truss for the benefit of the Kingdom and the UK.

Prince Mohammed also extended his condolences to the prime minister on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and congratulated King Charles III on his accession to the throne.

The two leaders also reviewed bilateral relations between their countries and ways to develop them within the framework of the Saudi-British Strategic Partnership Council.

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Truss plans to loosen immigration rules 

A recent Government report warned that such shortages were badly affecting the food and farming sector, often forcing farmers to cull healthy pigs and leave fruit rotting in the fields…reports Asian Lite News

Immigration rules are set to be loosened as part of Liz Truss’s mission to boost growth.

The Prime Minister is expected to expand the Government’s shortage occupation list in order to help businesses fill vacancies by more easily recruiting overseas workers.

Truss has faced industry demands for more migrant workers to be given visas to come to the UK, with labour shortages one of the main concerns voiced by employers across a range of sectors.

Businesses have been frustrated that the visa system for skilled work has not been responsive enough to shortages they have experienced.

Downing Street did not deny that the Prime Minister is planning to liberalise routes to allow foreign workers to move to the UK, as first reported in The Sun.

During her campaign for the Tory leadership, Ms Truss promised to tackle the labour shortages in farming – partly caused by post-Brexit freedom of movement restrictions and accentuated by the pandemic – with a short-term expansion to the seasonal workers scheme.

A recent Government report warned that such shortages were badly affecting the food and farming sector, often forcing farmers to cull healthy pigs and leave fruit rotting in the fields.

The seasonal workers programme, first launched in 2019, temporarily allows 40,000 overseas workers into the UK for seasonal roles in the horticulture and poultry sectors.

The cap is expected to be lifted and the six-month time limit extended, according to The Sun.

A No 10 source said: “We need to put measures in place so that we have the right skills that the economy, including the rural economy, needs to stimulate growth.

“That will involve increasing numbers in some areas and decreasing in others. As the Prime Minister has made clear, we also want to see people who are economically inactive get back into work.”

The Government is expected to set out its plan for migration reform later this year.

It appears to be a pivot away from Boris Johnson’s stance on immigration and may anger some Brexit voters.

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Truss vows to deepen ties with democracies like India

The Prime Minister brought the stark message of a confrontation between democracy and autocracy over the future of the world…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Liz Truss said that to build economic strength and resilience, her country is deepening relations and growing security ties with fellow democracies like India.

Making her debut on the world stage on Wednesday at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly, she said: “The free world needs this economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition.”

For this, Truss said: “We are deepening our links with fellow democracies like India, Israel, Indonesia and South Africa… We are building new security ties with our friends in the Indo-Pacific and the Gulf.”

Last year, India and Britain committed to Roadmap 2030, a broad plan for cooperation that encompasses strategic affairs, trade, Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific security, climate change and health.

The Prime Minister brought the stark message of a confrontation between democracy and autocracy over the future of the world.

“There is a real struggle going on between different forms of society – between democracies and autocracies. But we cannot simply assume there will be a democratic future.

“Unless democratic societies deliver on the economy and security our citizens expect, we will fall behind,” she added.

For this, Truss said, democracies like Britain have to build their economies and not “be strategically dependent on those who seek to weaponise the global economy”, a reference to Russia, whose ongoing invasion of Ukraine and its fallout have hit many countries hard.

To be economically and strategically resilient, democracies must band together, she said.

And alluding to the predatory nature of China’s economic programmes abroad, the Prime Minister said: “Rather than exerting influence through debt, aggression, and taking control of critical infrastructure and minerals, we are building strategic ties based on mutual benefit and trust.”

Earlier on Wednesday, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met the UK’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

In a tweet after the meeting, Jaishankar said: “Discussed taking forward Roadmap 2030. Appreciate his commitment to deepening our partnership. Our conversation also covered global issues including Indo-Pacific, Ukraine and UNSC matters.”

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‘We won’t rest until Ukraine defeats Russia’

Putin claimed that Russia was simply using contract soldiers and that the campaign’s principal objective was still the liberation of the whole Donbas region…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Liz Truss has committed to continue providing Ukraine with military assistance until it defeats Russia.

“We will not rest until Ukraine prevails,” Truss told the UN General Assembly on September 22. “At this crucial moment in the conflict, I pledge that we will sustain or increase our military support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated that, despite a counteroffensive, there were no intentions to alter Moscow’s military activities in Ukraine and that Moscow was not in a haste to end the campaign. Putin told reporters that the plan is not subject to change.

“Our offensive operations in Donbas itself do not stop. They are going at a slow pace… the Russian army is occupying newer and newer territories,” Putin said. “We are not in a hurry… there are no changes.”

Putin claimed that Russia was simply using contract soldiers and that the campaign’s principal objective was still the liberation of the whole Donbas region. He charged Ukrainian forces of trying to commit “terrorist crimes” and harm civilian infrastructure in Russia.

“We are really quite restrained in our response to this, for the time being,” Putin said. “If the situation continues to develop in this way, the response will be more serious.”

In an attempt to mend fences over the effect that Brexit will have on Northern Ireland’s peace, Truss and US President Joe Biden pledged themselves to be steadfast allies. The leaders met at the UN two days after attending Queen Elizabeth II’s burial in London, and Britain is hoping that the sympathy shown for the late monarch would help smooth over any snags in relations with the US and other allies brought on by the UK’s exit from the EU.

The 1998 Good Friday peace pact that put an end to 30 years of sectarian warfare has been shaken, according to the US. At the conclusion of the 75-minute discussion, Truss’ office stated that Truss and Biden concurred that safeguarding the Good Friday Agreement and maintaining the peace in Northern Ireland must come first.

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Truss to cut stamp duty in push for prosperity

Truss said that she was willing to be unpopular if it meant boosting growth by pushing forward policies such as lifting the ban on bankers’ bonuses and ending the moratorium on fracking for shale gas…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Liz Truss will announce radical plans to cut stamp duty in the government’s mini-budget this week in an attempt to drive economic growth.

The prime minister and Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor, have been working on the plans for more than a month and will announce them on Friday.

Truss believes that cutting stamp duty will encourage economic growth by allowing more people to move and enabling first-time buyers to get on the property ladder.

Two Whitehall sources said that cuts to stamp duty were the “rabbit” in the mini-budget, which the government is billing as a “growth plan”. The fiscal statement will also include plans to reverse the national insurance rise and freeze corporation tax, two measures that will cost £30 billion a year between them.

Truss is also considering bringing forward plans to cut income tax by 1p in the pound from 2024 to next year, although this is likely to be reserved for a full budget before the end of the year.

During a trip to New York for the UN general assembly, she made clear that she wanted to go further in cutting taxes. She told TalkTV: “I’ve been very clear that as well as keeping taxes low, we need to put in place measures that are going to drive growth in the economy. And that’s my priority — we’ve had relatively low growth for several decades.”

She also indicated that there would be a wider review of the tax system. “We do have to take difficult decisions to get our economy right,” she told the BBC. “We have to look at our tax rates.”

Under the present system no stamp duty is paid on the first £125,000 of any property purchase. Between £125,001 and £250,000 stamp duty is levied at 2 per cent, £250,001 and £925,000 5 per cent, £925,001 and £1.5 million 10 per cent and anything above £1.5 million 12 per cent. For first-time buyers the threshold at which stamp duty is paid is £300,000.

During the pandemic the stamp duty threshold was increased temporarily to £500,000 to help to stimulate the property market. Truss has previously said that cutting stamp duty is “critical” to economic growth. As chief secretary to the Treasury she said that the highest rate of stamp duty, which was introduced by George Osborne, was “clogging up” the housing market and leading to fewer transactions.

Although successive Tory chancellors have cut stamp duty at lower levels, it is a big source of income for the government, raising about £12 billion a year.

Truss said that she was willing to be unpopular if it meant boosting growth by pushing forward policies such as lifting the ban on bankers’ bonuses and ending the moratorium on fracking for shale gas.

She admitted that her tax plans would initially benefit those who are better off. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the poorest three million households in Britain would be as little as 63p a month better off under plans to cut national insurance.

Truss said, however, that by boosting growth the whole country would prosper. “I don’t accept this argument that cutting taxes is somehow unfair,” she said.

“What we know is people on higher incomes generally pay more tax so when you reduce taxes there is often a disproportionate benefit because those people are paying more taxes in the first place. We should be setting our tax policy on the basis of what is going to help our country become successful. What is going to deliver that economy that benefits everybody in our country. What I don’t accept is the idea that tax cuts for business don’t help people in general.”

Asked directly if she was prepared to be unpopular, she replied: “Yes, yes I am. What is important to me is that we grow the British economy because that’s what will ultimately deliver higher wages, more investment in towns and cities across the country, that is what will ultimately deliver more money into people’s pockets, and it will also enable us to fund the services like the National Health Service.”

Her approach indicated a difference of opinion with President Biden, who criticised the idea yesterday that tax cuts for the better-off would benefit wider society. He and Truss will meet today.

Biden said on Twitter: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked. We’re building an economy from the bottom out and middle up.”

Although the comments were undoubtedly aimed at domestic critics of Biden’s multitrillion-dollar stimulus plans, the comments highlight the ideological chasm between Biden and Truss. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Any suggestion that it’s in some way a direct criticism of UK policy would be ludicrous. No two countries’ economies are structured in the same way, each have unique challenges.”

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We will ride out the storm, says Truss

Truss spent her first hours after entering Number 10 sacking members of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet and appointing her own, leaning heavily on trusted supporters…reports Asian Lite News

Liz Truss on Tuesday declared that Britain could “ride out the storm” of the cost of living crisis as she prepared to freeze annual energy bills for households at around £2,500.

Speaking from the steps of Number 10 under grey clouds, the new Prime Minister used her first speech to reassure the country that financial help was coming.

She also appointed a Cabinet of loyalists, rejecting calls from senior Tories to choose Rishi Sunak supporters for top roles.

Truss will unveil a package of measures to help with spiralling energy costs as early as Thursday. Household energy bills are set to be frozen this winter and next, and businesses are also expected to receive support, although details are still being finalised.

The vast intervention will be funded with borrowing, and the total cost could be more than £150 billion.

Newly elected Prime Minister, Liz Truss arrives at No.10 Downing Street after an audience with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral, Scotland. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

Speaking after a visit to Balmoral, where she was formally appointed Prime Minister by the Queen, Truss said: “We shouldn’t be daunted by the challenges we face. As strong as the storm may be, I know that the British people are stronger. Our country was built by people who get things done. We have huge reserves of talent, of energy, and determination. I am confident that together we can ride out the storm, we can rebuild our economy and we can become the modern brilliant Britain that I know we can be.”

Truss spent her first hours after entering Number 10 sacking members of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet and appointing her own, leaning heavily on trusted supporters.

Therese Coffey, one of her closest friends in politics, was named as Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary in a signal of the importance the new Prime Minister places on tackling the NHS backlog.

Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed Chancellor, James Cleverly became Foreign Secretary and Suella Braverman, who ran for the Tory leadership, was made Home Secretary.

It means that for the first time in history none of the great offices of state is held by a white man. The three senior figures also have limited Cabinet experience – just three years combined.

Truss chose not to give Cabinet jobs to many supporters of Sunak, her Tory leadership rival, despite calls for a unity front bench. Sunak was not appointed to a Cabinet role.

The move is a political risk given that her two predecessors were forced out of office by rebellions among Conservative MPs.

Truss will hold her first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday before facing Sir Keir Starmer in her first Prime Minister’s Questions. On Tuesday night she spoke on the phone to Joe Biden, the US president.

The White House stressed that Northern Ireland peace must be protected – a hint at past concern over the UK’s push to unilaterally change post-Brexit trade rules in the province.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said he had invited Truss to Ukraine after becoming the first foreign leader to hold a call with the new Prime Minister.

Johnson brought down the curtain on his three-year premiership with a 7.30am speech outside Downing Street in which he pledged support to Truss and touted his achievements in office.

But he also appeared to hint that hopes of a political comeback were not gone, citing Cincinnatus, an Ancient Roman politician who gave up power but returned again.

Truss’s speech threatened to be overshadowed by a downpour that broke just moments before her arrival at Number 10.

The Downing Street podium was covered by a plastic bag and removed as the shower struck, but was returned as the rain eased for her address.

She laid out her policy priorities in office, saying: “I will get Britain working again. I have a bold plan to grow the economy through tax cuts and reform. I will cut taxes to reward hard work and boost business-led growth and investment. I will deal hands-on with the energy crisis caused by Putin’s war. I will take action this week to deal with energy bills and to secure our future energy supply.”

She named NHS reform as another key drive, saying: “I will make sure that people can get doctors’ appointments and the NHS services they need. We will put our health service on a firm footing.”

There was praise for her predecessor as she said: “Boris Johnson delivered Brexit, the Covid vaccine, and stood up to Russian aggression. History will see him as a hugely consequential prime minister.”

Truss talked up the “grit, courage and determination” of the British people, saying: “I know that we have what it takes to tackle these challenges. Of course it won’t be easy. But we can do it. We will transform Britain into an aspiration nation.”

Fresh details emerged about the huge package of support she is preparing to announce later this week to protect homes and businesses from rising energy bills.

All 28 million households are expected to be protected until 2024 in an intervention that goes further and lasts longer than Labour’s proposals.

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Zelensky hopes Truss will help Ukraine ‘thwart’ Russia

Britain has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24…reports Asian Lite News

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he hoped Britain’s new Conservative leader Liz Truss would help Kyiv “thwart” Russia.

Truss has been confirmed as Britain’s new Conservative leader, taking over from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of Zelensky’s greatest backers.

Zelensky said in his daily address that he was “looking forward to the start of cooperation” with Truss.

“I believe that together we will be able to do more to protect our peoples and to thwart all Russian destructive efforts,” Zelensky said.

“We in Ukraine know her well — she has always been on the bright side of European politics,” Ukraine’s president said, adding that “the main thing is to preserve our unity”.

Britain has been a staunch ally of Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.

London has funnelled military hardware, funding and training resources to Kyiv’s embattled forces, now waging battles in the nation’s south and east.

Zelensky last month awarded Johnson the “Order of Liberty” — a Ukrainian honour given to those who buttress the country’s sovereignty — during his third visit to Ukraine since the war began.

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