Liz Truss tells PMQs: 'I am a fighter not a quitter'
Embattled prime minister Liz Truss has insisted she will hold on in Downing Street as she faced her first Prime Minister's Questions since being forced into a U-turn on tax plans.
The Conservative leader said she was "sorry" and had "made mistakes" before the House of Commons.
"The only mandate she's ever had is from members opposite," Labour leader Keir Starmer said. "It was a mandate built on fantasy economics, and it ended in disaster. The country's got nothing to show for it except the destruction of the economy and the implosion of the Tory party."
"I am a fighter and not a quitter," Truss countered, turning on Starmer. "I have acted in the national interest to make sure that we have economic stability.
"We have delivered on the energy price guarantee, we've delivered on National Insurance. We are going to deliver to stop the militant trade unions disrupting our railways.
"The honourable gentleman has no idea, he has no plan, and he has no alternative."
The PM said she and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt are "completely committed" to maintaining the triple lock on pensions after SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused her of having "put pensioners on the front line of Tory cuts"
"After 10 U-turns in two weeks we are left with a prime minister in office, but not in power, and families are paying through the teeth for her mistakes," he said.
"Inflation has risen to 40-year high, mortgage rates are at the highest level since the financial crash and people's energy bills are about to rise to more than £5,000. Can the prime minister answer one simple question? Why does she expect everyone else to pay the price for her failure?"
"If the honourable gentleman is concerned about the economy," Truss responded, "why does he continue to advocate for separatism which would plunge the Scottish economy into chaos?"
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