Liz Truss refuses to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation – UK politics live

Liz Truss refuses to say whether benefits will rise in line with inflation

Good morning from the Conservative arty conference on the day the spotlight is falling on a fresh battle between Liz Truss and Tory rebels – this time over the level of benefits.

It’s only day after the government was forced into a humiliating U-turn on plans to abolish the top rate of income tax and the date of a new mini-budget.

This morning Truss is doing a broadcast round where he has refused to rule out real-terms benefit cuts to help pay for her government’s plans

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there is a need to be “fiscally responsible” amid suggestions benefits will not rise in line with inflation.

She said:

We are going to have to make decisions about how we bring down debt as a proportion of GDP in the medium term.

I am very committed to supporting the most vulnerable, in fact in addition to the energy price guarantee we’re also providing an extra £1,200 to the poorest households. So we have to look at these issues in the round, we have to be fiscally responsible.

Asked by the Today programme’s Nick Robinson about how she can guarantee that pensions will rise with inflation and not benefit payments, Truss replied the government is looking “at all of these issues very carefully” and an announcement “will be made in due course”.

But with Tory MPs plotting, the Guardian understands the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, will speed up plans for a new fiscal statement, expected to focus on spending and deregulation.

It will now take place later this month, rather than on 23 November as previously scheduled, accompanied by new forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility, in another move designed to restore market stability.

Senior MPs warned of further rebellions over reductions in public spending, especially on benefits, which the chancellor has declined to rule out.

Key events

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Rajeev Syal

Ahead of her speech today to the Conservative party conference, the home secretary has said she would examine the possibility of giving anonymity to suspected criminals after concern over the identification and treatment of high-profile people wrongly accused of sexual abuse.

Suella Braverman made the pledge after criticising the “media circus” surrounding accusations against the singer Cliff Richard and the former MP Harvey Proctor, which both said had ruined their lives.

Braverman told a Young Conservatives audience at the party conference in Birmingham that “trial by media will only undermine our justice system”.

Asked about the treatment of Richard and Proctor, both of whom were cleared of any wrongdoing after facing high-profile claims, she said:

We have had some high-profile instances where the media circus around a suspect who has not been charged has been devastating. I think coverage of people prior to charge can be very, very damaging, particularly if the charges are not pursued or if they are dropped later on.

Joanna Partridge

Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to bring forward his debt-cutting plan could help to calm markets and mean smaller future interest rate rises than would otherwise have been the case, according to the Tory chair of parliament’s influential Treasury watchdog.

Mel Stride, a Conservative MP and the chair of the Treasury committee, said moving the government’s fiscal statement to October from 23 November, could restore some confidence, depending on the content of the plan and the detail of the new forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility.

The pound rose to a two-week high above $1.14 on Tuesday as Kwarteng prepared to announce an earlier date to set out his plans to cut debts. Stride said that if the plans were well received, the Bank of England might opt for a smaller rate rise at its next meeting on 3 November.

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng on Tuesday at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Truss was asked about her views on what she has described as “obstacles to growth” replying that she was intent on pressing ahead with plans to remove “top-down” housing targets.

It’s wrong that how houses are built is centrally directed. Instead we are setting up new investment zones, which are places that people want homes to be built and they want businesses to be built. It’s an approach based more on local consent than centrally based targets.

She was also asked if she had the courage to tell a Tory conference that more immigrants would be needed to do the jobs that were needed in the UK?

Truss said that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was looking at the ensuring that the immigration provided what was needed and if that meant bringing in more highly skilled workers then it should be the case

That is the balance that she needs to strike. Yes there is more that we can do to get the highly skilled people we need in our economy but we also need to train more people.

A large number of people had become “economically inactive” during Covid and it was important to get them back to work, she added.

Yet another Tory MP, Caroline Noakes, has popped up to draw a line in the sand over the question of raising benefits in line with inflation.

Glad to hear Leader of the House of Commons @PennyMordaunt has made clear her commitment to uprating benefits in line with inflation on radio this morning.

— Caroline Nokes MP (@carolinenokes) October 4, 2022

“How is the government going to re-establish its financial credibility?,” Truss was asked on the Today programme.

Pointing again to the government’s measures to alleviate the expected rises in energy costs, Truss said: “I do think we need to recognise first of all that people are struggling and it is a difficult time. I have every sympathy and I am doing all I can as prime minister to address that.”

Nick Robinson came in at this point to say that this was all very well, but the increase in mortgage costs had wiped out the gains on energy for many people. She replied

Every single household benefits from our energy price guarantee and of course we had to act very quickly as a government to deal with that and of course it has meant extra borrowing and I acknowledge that we should have done more to lay the groundwork.

Will she admit that it was a mistake?

There is always balance to be struck and we do need to get things done but we are also a listening government. We reflect on where things could have been done better.

Truss was asked about the announcement this week by a major financial advice firm, deVere Group, that it was cancelling all of its UK property investment projects due to the ongoing heightened “economic upheaval”.

Would the government bring forward plans forward its fiscal statement to provide calm to investors and others?

We are working very closely with the OBR. It’s important that we have a forecast to go with that plan and that’s something the chancellor is working on.

As things stand the Guardian understands Kwasi Kwarteng will speed up plans for a new fiscal statement, expected to be focused on spending and deregulation.

It will now take place later this month, rather than 23 November, accompanied by new forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility, in another move designed to restore market stability.

The focus on the government’s 45p tax rate was “becoming a distraction,” Liz Truss has told BBC Radio 4 in the full interview which she recored on Monday at the request of her office.

Asked about the fear and anxiety – as well as material consequences for large numbers of mortgage holders – generated for millions of people by Kwasi mini-budget, Truss replied

Well, I have already admitted that we should have done a better job at laying the ground for that but I think what would have been completely wrong is us not to act.

She continued to insist that “the biggest part of the package was the energy price cap. Pressed on the plan to cut 45p rate of income tax for higher earners, now scrapped, she replied that “the whole issue about the 45p has become a distraction from the core part of the package.”

Pressed about the mini-budget’s other taxes, which are still tp be paid for, she replied:

In the case of corporation tax we are not talking a cut. We are talking about not raising a tax and what I believe is wrong is that going into a slowing global economy, when Britain is trying to attract investment from around the world, we would put up our corporation tax rate to considerably higher than the rate in Ireland, the same rate as in France.

Here are some of the key events as well as interesting-looking fringe events scheduled for today at the Tory conference in Birmingham.

Headline speakers later include the home secretary, Suella Braverman, who will use her conference speech to set out her intention to bring in new laws to make it easier to deport people who come to the UK illegally.

The home secretary will promise to allow “the kind of immigration that grows our economy” but “end abuse of the rules” as she addresses activists at the Conservative party conference.

9.30am: Andrew Griffith, financial secretary to the Treasury, will speak alongside Lord Frost at an even on domestic investment.

10.30am: An event entitled “After the Johnson era, how can the government rebuild trust?” Speakers will include Tory MP Jeremy Wright.

1pm: Michael Gove will speak at an event called: How can health revitalise the economy?’

4pm: Main speakers in a session entitled: Delivering Better Public Services | Foreign Affairs

Speakers include the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey; the home secretary, Suella Braverman; the transport secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan; the education secretary, Kit Malthouse; and the justice secretary, Brandon Lewis.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will also set out foreign policy priorities.

Penny Mordaunt says benefits should rise with inflation

Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt has told Times Radio that benefits should rise with inflation:

Mordaunt, one of Truss’s vanquished rivals during the Tory leadership race, said:

I’ve always supported – whether it’s pensions, whether it’s our welfare system – keeping pace with inflation. It makes sense to do so. That’s what I voted for before.

In a potentially key intervention that will be picked over for its contrast to the carefully chosen words this morning from the prime inister, Mordaunt added:

We want to make sure that people are looked after and that people can pay their bills. We are not about trying to help people with one hand and take away with another.

Senior Conservative officials have accused West Midlands police of failing to do enough to keep protesters away from delegates at the party conference, a leaked letter reveals.

The disclosure comes just hours after the police were forced to lock down the conference in central Birmingham for several hours after a security scare. Police say they have been shortchanged by over £500,000 on the costs of keeping the conference in Birmingham secure.

Jake Berry, the Conservative party chair, and Darren Mott, party chief executive, sent a letter on Sunday evening to the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands raising “serious concerns” over security around the conference.

The Conservatives’ chair and chief executive wrote to West Midlands police to express ‘serious concerns’ over security around their conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

The Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, has written a piece which delves in to the behind-the-scenes events which led to the government’s u-turn on the 45 pence tax rate.

As early as Friday, Truss and her No 10 team were calling round Tory MPs.

She spoke to one former cabinet minister just as they were door-knocking constituents.

I told her I’d just been told how unfair it was that we were protecting the rich while my constituent was worried about paying their mortgage.

Some MPs suspected something was up when the Tory whips failed to do their regular weekend ring-round to test the mood.

“It seemed odd, especially after such a turbulent week,” said one. “But it also meant that they didn’t know if they had the numbers to get the policy through the Commons.”