Liz Truss says she is prepared to be unpopular as she sets out policies to deliver growth – UK politics live

The government bill aimed at addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland’s Troubles can be improved, Chris Heaton-Harris, the new Northern Ireland secretary, has said. Speaking in Belfast, he said:

I know it is a bill that can be improved and so I’m looking forward to the House of Lords offering some views on how it can be improved. I know there is no ideal solution on legacy.

Liz Truss also recorded an interview at the top of the Empire State Building with ITV’s Anushka Asthana. Much of it echoed what she said in her BBC and Sky interviews, but she there were some fresh lines too. Here they are.

• Truss said that pubs would be among the “vulnerable businesses” that will get ongoing support with energy bills after the initial six-month support package runs out. Details of the whole initative are due to be announced tomorrow, fleshing out the cursory outline given by Truss in her statement to MPs before the Queen died. Asked what would happen to companies needing help for more than six months, Truss replied:

For businesses that are vulnerable, who don’t the wherewithall to invest in their own energy supply, we will be providing support in the longer term. That does include businesses like pubs.

The business secretary [Jacob Rees-Mogg] is conducting a review of exactly which businesses will be included; that review will be completed within three months. I can reassure people who own pubs that they are exactly the type of businesses that will get that longer term support.

• She did not rule out extending into the next financial year some of the specific measures in place this winter to help poorer households with energy bills. The Truss energy price guarantee is due to last two years, but measures announced by Rishi Sunak earlier this year, offering targeted help to poor households, pensioners and disabled people, only last over the winter. Asked what could be done to help these groups after spring, Truss said: “Next year, of course, we will continue to assess the situation as we move forward.”

When corporation tax was reduced we did see more revenue coming into the exchequer. And what we are going to be doing on corporation tax is keeping it at the same level and keeping it competitive compared to other countries.

• Truss suggested “vested interests” were opposed to the plan to lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses. When asked who these vested interests were, Truss said she was making a general point about vested interests being opposed to reform.

Liz Truss has also recorded an interview with the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason. As she did in her Sky News interview, she insisted that she was willing to take unpopular decisions in her quest to promote growth. (Sky’s Beth Rigby was asking about Truss’s decision not to implement a new windfall tax on energy companies – a plan backed by two-thirds of voters; Mason was asking Truss about her proposal to lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses.)

Here are some other lines from the BBC interview.

• Truss said she did not accept that her economic policies, which include substantial tax cuts, would encourage the Bank of England to raise interest rates. Most economists believes that cutting tax on the scale planned will be inflationary, leading the Bank to raise interest rates by more than otherwise planned. But Truss said she did not accept this. When Mason put it to her that her plans would result in people paying more for their mortgages, Truss replied:

I don’t accept that analysis. And in fact, the energy package that we announced and the business secretary will be saying more about that this week, is projected to lead to a lowering of inflation by up to five percentage points, because a lot of the cost of inflation has been driven by higher energy prices, primarily caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine. So the intervention the UK government is undertaking will help reduce inflation and also boost economic growth.

• She refused to accept that the recent fall in the value of the pound was a cause of concern. Asked if she was worried about it, she replied: “My belief is that Britain’s economic fundamentals are strong. We have relatively low debt compared to the rest of the G7. We have strong employment.”

Sky News is broadcasting an interview with Liz Truss by Beth Rigby, the Sky political editor.

Q: Why is it fair for people to take the pain of higher energy bills when energy companies are making such big profits?

Truss says the plan to deal with energy bills will cost the government money. The government also has a plan to guaranteed long-term energy supply, she says.

She says she would not allow the burden to fall on people and businesses.

Q: But you would rather the taxpayer foots the bill than business?

Truss says on Friday the chancellor will explain how this will be paid for.

The energy plan is likely to reduce inflation by five percentage points, and encourage growth, she says.

Q: Labour’s policy, a windfall tax, is backed by 68% of the public. You are prepared to be unpopular, aren’t you?

Truss replies: “Yes. Yes, I am.”

Liz Truss is due to have her first proper meeting with Joe Biden, the US president, tomorrow. It is not obvious what prompted him to post this on Twitter about half an hour ago, but it suggests that his bilateral with Truss tomorrow won’t be a meeting of minds.

Liz Truss is more committed to trickle-down economics than any other British prime minister taking office at least since Margaret Thatcher in 1979 (and even Thatcher was in power for nine years before she finally got round to slashing the top rate of income tax to 40%). Biden says he is “sick and tired” of this approach because it never works.