Liz Truss defends mini-budget, saying she has to do ‘what I believe is right’ – UK politics live

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Q: Why can’t you tell us there will be no fracking in Lancashire. People do not want it?

Truss says the government is still exploring where there might be consent for fracking.

Liver asks about a fracking site in Lancashire. Truss says she has not visited it. He suggests she should.

Graham Liver on BBC Radio Lancashire is now getting his slot with Liz Truss.

Q: Do you agree with Jacob Rees-Mogg that people opposed to fracking are luddites?

Truss says: “I would not have put it like that.”

Q: What will you do about small boats crossing the Channel?

Truss says she will stick to the Rwanda plan, and make sure UK courts cannot be over-ruled.

That is the BBC Radio Kent interview over.

Q: Are you ashamed of what you have done?

Truss says we have to remember what people were facing – fuel bills going up to ?6,000, rising inflation and slow growth.

Now people are not facing those fuel bill rises.

Q: But people are worried about their mortgates and their pensions.

Truss says her measures will reduce inflation.

(She is talking about the energy price guarantee, which will reduce inflation. But the min-budget will put it up.)

She repeats the point about taking decisive action. It would have been “unconscionable” to allow people to go into the winter facing high energy bills.

Q: We saw the pound dive. We cannot have our economic system undermined like this.

Truss says the government is working with the Bank of England. She goes on: “We face a difficult international situation.”

Liz Truss is due on Radio Kent next. You can listen here.

Q: Does a strong leader plough on, or does a strong leader change course when necessary?

Truss replies: “This is the right plan.”

Q: Can you reassure listeners that your judgment is better than that of people like the IMF and the Bank of England, who have criticised the min-budget?

Truss says:

I have to do what I believe is right for the country and what is going to help move our country forward.

Liz Truss is on Radio Norfolk now, being interviewed by Chris Goreham.

She is talking about the energy package again.

(The announcement of the energy price guarantee did not crash the pound. So far, what she has said has been completely missing the point.)

Truss says the government is getting things done to get the economy moving.

Ahmed plays a clip from someone talking about how they are struggling with bills. She says the clip is heartbreaking to listen to.

Truss says it is clearly “very, very difficult” for people like Lee (who was quoted). The package on energy bills will stop people facing energy bills of ?6,000. The maximum will be ?2,500. And the action on getting the economy going is all about getting the economy going.

She says the government is trying to help people like Lee.

That’s it. Next it’s Radio Norfolk.

Truss says the government is working closely with the Bank of England.

We are facing very difficult economic times, she says.

But the government has acted on fuel bills, she says.

She says those measures will take effect this weekend.

Liz Truss is on the show.

She says she has slept well, and “it’s great to be here”.

Rima Ahmed points out that the pound has hit a record low, the IMF has called for a rethink and the Bank of England has spent ?65bn propping up the markets. “Where have you been?”

Truss says people were facing energy bills of up to ?6,000 this winter. The gofernment had to take decisive action.

Q: But that was before the mini-budget. We have not heard from you for four day.

Truss says she is here today.

She says the government had to take urgent action, on fuel bills, and to get the economy moving.]

That means taking controversial and difficult decisions.

She wants to get the economy moving.

Q: How has your risk gone?

Truss says it means people and businesses will be paying lower taxes. It has meant infrastructure projects will go ahead. And it has protected people from rising fuel bills.

On BBC Radio Leeds Rima Ahmed is presenting, and she says she is expecting a lot of people to be listening when she interviews Liz Truss any minute now. You can listen here.

Chris Philp, chief secretary to the Treasury, has been doing the national broadcast round on behalf of No 10 this morning. He confirmed that government departments are being asked to make “efficiency savings” and that they will have to stick to existing spending limits, despite inflation. He told Sky News:

The efficiency and prioritisation exercise is designed to firstly make absolutely sure we stick to those spending limits and secondly make sure that we are prioritising expenditure, not on anything that is wasteful, but on things that really deliver frontline public services and drive economic growth

We are going to stick rigidly to those spending limits because it is important to be financially responsible.

He also said the government would not be apologising for the turmoil caused by the mini-budget. He said:

No one’s perfect but I’m not going to apologise for having a plan to grow the economy.

I am certainly not going to apologise for having an energy intervention which is protecting every single household in this country.

Sir Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, has criticised last week’s mini-budget, saying it undermined financial institions.

In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme, Carney said:

There was an undercutting of some of the institutions the underpin the overall approach – so not having an OBR forecast is much-commented upon and the government, I think, has accepted the need for that but that was important …

Unfortunately having a partial budget, in these circumstances – tough global economy, tough financial market position, working at cross-purposes with the Bank – has led to quite dramatic moves in financial markets.

Referring to the inflationary measures in the mini-budget, which has led to expectations that the Bank will have to increase interest rates by more than it otherwise would have done to curb the inflation created as a result, Carney said that in the mini-budget the government was “working at some cross-purposes with the Bank in terms of short-term support for the economy”.

Here is the list of timings for Liz Truss’s BBC local radio interviews this morning.

8am: Radio Leeds

8.08am: Radio Norfolk

8.15am: Radio Kent

8.22am: Radio Lancashire

8.30: Radio Nottingham

8.38am: Radio Tees

8.45am: Radio Bristol

8.52am: Radio Stoke

Some stations are expected to run their Truss interview live, while others may record it and broadcast it after the time shown above.

Later Truss is recording TV interviews with all 16 of the BBC’s regional and national political editors. These will be embargoed until 5pm.

Good morning. Four years ago, when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss was overheard by a Green party activist gossiping about her colleagues in a restaurant. He kindly posted all her comments on Twitter and, among the personal gossip, he recorded Truss setting out her approach to risk. Theresa May was too “pacifist”, she said. “Whereas I embrace the chaos. I’m a thrillseeker.”

No one ever expected Truss to “embrace the chaos” quite as recklessly as she has done in her first few weeks as prime minister. As we report in our overnight story, the Bank of England is having to spend ?65bn repairing the damage done to financial markets by last week’s disastrous mini-budget. As Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in their story on the political fallout, some Tories think this is an “extinction-level” moment for the party.

One factor that has made the situation worse is that Liz Truss has been silent since the mini-budget, apart from an interview with CNN shown in the US on Sunday. But this morning she is giving interviews – to BBC local radio stations. The Conservative leader normally does a round of local radio interviews at this point ahead of the party conference, and that apparently is why they are in the diary. She is up first on Radio Leeds at 8am. What she says is likely to attract a lot more attention than a normal interview on the station. We will be covering all the interviews here.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com