Page 5 - British Prime Minister

'I am a fighter, not a quitter', says Truss to an angry Parliament

PM commits to pension spending; no comment on benefits, foreign aid

UK PM Liz Truss faces test in Parliament over economic plan, seeks lifeline

British Prime Minister Liz Truss faces a House of Commons grilling Wednesday from a hostile opposition and her own furious Conservative Party as she tries to fend off calls to quit over her botched economic plan. Truss is set to attend the weekly Prime Minister's Questions session two days after newly appointed Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt ripped up the tax-cutting package unveiled by the prime minister's new government less than a month ago. The package of unfunded tax cuts announced Sept. 23 sparked turmoil on financial markets, hammered the value of the pound and increased the cost of U.K. government borrowing. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to prevent the crisis spreading to the wider economy and putting pensions at risk. Under intense political and economic pressure, Truss last week fired her ally Kwasi Kwarteng as Treasury chief, replacing him with Cabinet veteran Hunt. On Monday Hunt scrapped almost all of Truss' tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy an

British PM Liz Truss vows to carry on as her party support dwindles

After weeks of blaming 'global headwinds', Truss on Monday said she was sorry for going 'too far and too fast' with her radical economic plan to snap Britain out of years of tepid growth

UK PM 'sorry' for economic 'mistakes' but embattled Truss vows to stay on

UK PM Liz Truss apologised for going "too far too fast" with reforms that caused investor confidence to evaporate and her poll ratings to plunge

UK's new finance minister Jeremy Hunt reverses all of Liz Truss' tax cuts

Britain's new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, on Monday reversed entirely all of British Prime Minister Liz Truss' tax cuts and scaled back the expensive energy bills support in an emergency fiscal statement. Hunt's statement is an attempt to reassure the markets about the country's fiscal sustainability and calm the shockwaves of his predecessor's mini-budget last month. The finance minister said a 1 pence cut to income tax will be delayed "indefinitely" until the UK's finances improve, instead of being introduced in April 2023 as announced in predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget. The government's energy price guarantee will only be universal until April and not for two years as originally planned. The government has today decided to make further changes to the mini-budget, and to reduce unhelpful speculation about what they are, we've decided to announce these ahead of the medium-term fiscal plan, which happens in two weeks," Hunt said in a statement. After meeting

Bookie odds favour Rishi Sunak comeback amid turbulence for UK PM Liz Truss

British Prime Minister Liz Truss, just over a month into the job, is already seen as increasingly unlikely to ride out the turbulence within her own Conservative Party and the financial markets, with her former leadership rival Rishi Sunak the odds-on favourite to make a comeback for 10 Downing Street. At the end of a tumultuous week in British politics which saw Truss sack her close friend and trusted aide Kwasi Kwarteng who was enforcing her own economic policies as Chancellor, the mutinous voices within the governing Conservatives continue to flag how Sunak had warned against much of the financial meltdown that would follow his rival's unfunded tax-cutting policies. The former British Indian Chancellor adopted a silent approach as he hosted two pre-scheduled parties at a central London hotel this week to thank his Ready for Rishi leadership campaign team and officials at the UK Treasury. His approach is one part I told you so' but rather more a sense of sadness. He just says: It

India-UK free trade deal stuck on free access to skilled workers

Any failure to conclude a trade accord with Britain will be a missed opportunity for India, a nation upon which many economies are pinning their hopes amid intensified geopolitical struggles

UK PM Liz Truss fires trade minister Conor Burns over alleged misconduct

A British trade minister was fired by Prime Minister Liz Truss and suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday over allegations of misconduct. The government said Truss had asked Conor Burns to leave the government with immediate effect after a complaint of serious misconduct. The prime minister took direct action on being informed of this allegation and is clear that all ministers should maintain the high standards of behaviour as the public rightly expects, the prime minister's office said. The Conservative whips' office said Burns had been suspended from the party's group in Parliament pending investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour earlier this week. He remains a lawmaker but will sit as an independent. British media reported that the alleged misconduct took place at the Conservatives' annual conference in the central England city of Birmingham. Burns is a long-time ally of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was forced to step down in July. Johnson

Cutting taxes the right thing to do, both morally and economically: UK PM

''Will make difficult but necessary choices for economic growth''

European shares fall as selling pressure kicks in after recent gains

European indexes fell in early trading and US futures were down as selling pressure kicked in Wednesday after a few days of strong gains. Asian shares advanced, led by a nearly 6 per cent jump in Hong Kong's share benchmark as markets there caught up after reopening from a holiday. Easing concerns about interest rate hikes by central banks have helped push markets higher in the past few days, but worries over inflation persist. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.2 per cent to 7,002.15 ahead of a speech by British Prime Minister Liz Truss where she was expected to defend her economic plans, including tax cuts that have roiled markets. Truss says she will stick with her plan to reshape Britain's economy through tax cuts and deregulation in a bid to end years of sluggish growth and create a new Britain for the new era. France's CAC 40 fell 0.7 per cent to 5,996.89 in early trading, while Germany's DAX slipped 0.8 per cent to 12,574.14. The future for the S&P 500 was down 0.7 per cent while ..

British PM Liz Truss sticks by economic plan as her party worries

British Prime Minister Liz Truss said Sunday that she could have done a better job laying the ground for her package of unfunded tax cuts, but insisted she would push on with an economic plan that has caused turmoil on financial markets and weakened the country's public finances. Truss acknowledged that the UK faces a very turbulent and stormy time, but said her policies would lead to a high-growth, low-tax economy in the longer term. The comments are unlikely to calm Truss' Conservative Party, which opens its four-day annual conference on Sunday in the central England city of Birmingham amid plunging poll ratings and growing public discontent. Truss took office less than a month ago, promising to radically reshape Britain's economy to end years of sluggish growth. But the government's September 23 announcement of a stimulus package that includes 45 billion pounds (USD 50 billion) in tax cuts, to be paid for by government borrowing, sent the pound tumbling to a record low against th

UK PM Liz Truss defends decisive action of mini-budget amid market turmoil

British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday defended her government's controversial mini-budget which has triggered widespread economic turmoil and insisted that it was the decisive action needed for long-term growth. In her first round of interviews with local BBC radio stations around the country since the tax-cutting and high government, borrowing measures were tabled by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the House of Commons last week, the recently elected leader insisted "controversial and difficult decisions" needed to be taken to improve the situation in the UK. Truss was keen to keep the focus on the largely welcome action taken to freeze fuel bills for households and businesses amid spiralling global energy costs in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "We had to take decisive action to help people through this winter and next winter, said Truss. I understand that families are struggling with their fuel bills and we had to take urgent action to get our economy growing and g

IMF tells UK to 're-evaluate' unfunded tax cuts as global criticism mounts

Prime Minister Liz Truss's decision to cut taxes by the most since the early 1970s and cover them via borrowing at a time of surging inflation has rattled financial markets and drawn concern

British PM Liz Truss may lift immigration cap to fight labour shortage

Plans to introduce more tax cuts next year as part of first full Budget

India-UK FTA first step in evolving trade, economic ties: UK official

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a very ambitious desire to get the India-UK Free Trade Agreement signed by Diwali and his new British counterpart Liz Truss wants her administration to "match the pace and ambition" of the Indian leader, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said. Cleverly also said that the bilateral relationship between India and UK is longstanding and wide-ranging, which is both a "huge plus" but it also means that "quite understandably there is a desire to have a very, very wide-ranging, meaningful free trade agreement." "Obviously, Prime Minister Modi has set a very ambitious desire to get a free trade agreement signed by Diwali. Now that means that both us and Indian negotiators are going to have to work very, very hard but we are very willing to do so," Cleverly told PTI in an interview here Wednesday on the margins of the high-level UN General Assembly session. "We want to make sure that the deal that we do, ideally by Diwali, is the first step in a ...

UK official thanks India for 'senior representation' at Queen's funeral

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has expressed gratitude for the representation by Indian President Droupadi Murmu at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, saying it was really noticed. President Murmu attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday morning. "I would like to say a huge thank you for the very very senior representation that India sent to Her Majesty the Queen's funeral. I had the opportunity to meet President Murmu and it was really noticed," Cleverly told PTI in an interview here on Wednesday on the margins of the high-level UN General Assembly session. Cleverly, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom under the new administration of Prime Minister Liz Truss, also met his Indian counterpart External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar late on Wednesday evening at the sidelines of the UNGA. During her three-day visit to London, Murmu visited Westminster Hall and offered tributes

Biden, Truss commit to continue coordination on global challenges at UNGA

Joe Biden met with the newly elected UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly and committed to continue close coordination

UK's PM Liz Truss slams Putin for turmoil, hails queen in debut UNGA speech

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making "saber-rattling threats" to cover his failed invasion of Ukraine, as she prepared to tell the United Nations that its founding principles were fracturing because of aggression by authoritarian states. In her debut speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday night, Truss will call the war in Ukraine a battle for "our values and the security of the whole world," and extol the late Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of everything the U.N. stands for. The text of the speech was released in advance by Truss' office. Responding to a statement from Putin that he was mobilizing reservists and would use everything at his disposal to protect Russia an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal -- Truss accused the Russian leader of "desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures". "He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate," the speech said. "He is desperately trying t

Queen Elizabeth II was known around the world but still a royal mystery

Millions paid attention when she spoke and, crucially for a job that often was more significant in its silences, what she embodied

King Charles III addresses UK for first time from Buckingham Palace

We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family could owe to their mother, said King Charles III on Queen Elizabeth II's death