LIZ Truss will dodge scrutiny in Parliament over her crisis-hit economy strategy and will instead send on of her leadership rivals to field questions.
Ms Truss’s leadership and authority has been thrown into chaos after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the majority of the mini-budget will be reversed in a humiliating move for the Prime Minister.
All of the tax measures in the budget, delivered by Kwasi Kwarteng little more than three weeks ago, have been reversed – with the exception of the stamp duty cuts in England and cancelling the rise in National Insurance contributions.
Mr Hunt also annoucned that the energy price cap guarantee, legislated to last two years, will only be universal until April.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had tabled a question in the Commons, calling on the Prime Minister to give answers over her economic strategy after she refused to come to Parliament on Friday to annouce her second U-turn.
But Ms Truss will not answer the questions herself and instead, Penny Mordaunt, will be sent to respond to the Labour leader.
Ms Mordaunt, who is the leader of the House of Commons, was edged out of the Tory leadership contest by Ms Truss in the final round of voting by MPs before she became leader by defeating Rishi Sunak in cost cast by Tory members.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “With the Chancellor junking the majority of its kamikaze budget today, the Prime Minister should have come to the House to make a statement.
“If she had a shred of authority left she would turn up.”
Asked about the credibility problem Ms Truss now faces after the mini-budget U-turns, her official spokesman said she was providing “stability of leadership”.
The spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is listening to the public.
“She is listening to advice on the markets, she is listening to her colleagues and she is making the necessary difficult decisions to change our approach so that we can provide the economic stability and indeed maintain that stability of leadership which is important.”
Pressed on whether she accepted she had a credibility problem, the spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is demonstrating that she is able to make the difficult decisions necessary to provide the leadership for this country.”
Downing Street insisted the Prime Minister was still in charge despite Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tearing up her economic strategy.
Asked who was running the country, Ms Truss’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister. She has been working closely with her Chancellor over the weekend to agree this approach.
“Of course there are a raft of other areas on which she will continue to lead the country, not least in our response to the war in Ukraine.”
Cabinet ministers have been invited to No 10 for an informal “reception” on Monday evening as Ms Truss battles to save her premiership.
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