Downing Street denies there will be further U-turns over mini-budget after minister warns against removing Liz Truss

Downing Street has refused to rule out the prospect that some government departments could face cuts to their budgets.

Overall government spending will continue to rise in real terms, the PM’s official spokesperson said. They added:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When it comes to departments there is a process to go through which is led by the Treasury. We have made some specific commitments to departments. The Prime Minister has talked about defence spending, for example.

Beyond that, I am not going to get drawn into specific budgets. It is between those departments and the Treasury.

The leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, has joked that her “resting face” is that of a “bulldog chewing a wasp”.

During an exchange in the Commons, Labour’s shadow Commons leader, Thangam Debbonaire, said her counterpart “couldn’t even muster a nod for her prime minister” at yesterday’s PMQs.

Mordaunt responded:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Let me address the comments the honourable lady makes about my facial expressions: my resting face is that of a bulldog chewing a wasp, and people shouldn’t read too much into that.

The i’s Paul Waugh writes that Mordaunt’s performance today in the Commons gives her a prime opportunity to portray herself as a PM-in-waiting.

Paul Mason, formerly of Channel 4 News, writes that the smart money is on the imminent exit of Kwasi Kwarteng and his budget.

Downing Street has promised there will not be any more U-turns on the government’s mini-budget.

Asked if the prime minister promises there will be no further reversals, her official spokesperson said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Yes, as I said to a number of questions on this yesterday, and the position has not changed from what I set out to you all then.

Pressed on whether Liz Truss is committed to the timeframes set out for measures in the mini-budget, the official said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Yes, and obviously as you know the date for the medium-term fiscal plan has been brought forward.

The former culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, has urged Conservative MPs to #backliz just days after calling for a general election.

Tory MPs who are discussing who should replace Truss as leader “are not taking into account the fact that they cannot foist upon the British public another prime minister that the public have not voted for”, Dorries wrote on Twitter.

Just last week, Dorries suggested Truss should call a general election to obtain a mandate for her policies and said there was “widespread dismay” about the PM’s approach.

The government had “no mandate from the people” to scrap its policy promises under Boris Johnson and start from scratch, Dorries argued last Tuesday. She added:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}If we don’t want to deliver on the deal, the promises, we need a fresh mandate.

“It’s how democracy works,” Dorries explained.

It appears she is now fine with Britain having had one unelected prime minister, but having two would be a “totally untenable position”.

Conservative commentators are beginning to turn against Liz Truss, with rightwing newspapers such as the Sun and Daily Mail rounding on her for making a “pig’s ear” of the mini-budget, while other observers suggest her premiership could be extremely short-lived.

Though she was initially heralded by some as a prime minister to drive through true-blue policies with the most radical reforms in decades, unease is growing in Tory circles about her leadership.

Recent market turmoil, a series of screeching U-turns and the expectation more will follow are compounding jitters about Truss’s future.

The Daily Mail, in its editorial on Thursday, reserved the top slot in its three-pronged editorial column to savage the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, but used the second to raise concerns about Truss. It said her “dash for growth is already limping badly after she made a pig’s ear of presenting her ambitious mini-budget and was forced into humiliating U-turns”.

Though critical of her leadership, the Mail, which endorsed Truss during the leadership contest, did say the principle of tax cuts and pursuance of growth was the right one and urged Tory rebels to get behind it.

Emblazoned across the rest of the page was a comment piece by its columnist Stephen Glover. One extract read:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In her abject powerlessness she is like a leader who has been in office for years and has run out of options and support. But she has only just started! And she has a majority of nearly 70.

Meanwhile the Sun, which did not endorse either Truss or Rishi Sunak, used its editorial on Thursday to go after the new prime minister.

Read the full story:

The latest YouGov/Times voting intention poll shows Labour maintaining the massive lead they opened up over the Conservatives last month.

The figures show the Tories on 23% of the vote (up by one point from the previous poll) to Labour’s 51% (which is down one point).

Keir Starmer continues to hold a lead over Liz Truss in terms of the party leader Britons think would make the best prime minister, by 42% to 13%.

The Times’ Henry Zeffman paints a picture of the scale of the potential rebellion Liz Truss faces from her own MPs.

The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue, updated online ministerial profiles show.

The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and that victims of the crime are no longer being prioritised.

The previous safeguarding minister, Rachel Maclean, had modern slavery on her official list of ministerial responsibilities but her successor, Mims Davies, has no mention of the crime on her list. Instead, modern slavery is listed at the bottom of the “illegal immigration and asylum” brief of immigration minister Tom Pursglove.

Under Theresa May, the government pledged to be world leaders in combating modern slavery but Braverman said last week that trafficking claims from “people gaming the system” were “derailing the UK’s policy on illegal migration”.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The largest single group of modern slavery victims under the referral system last year were British children – including those who were exploited through county lines. The evidence shows the majority of exploitation takes place in the UK rather than across borders.

The government should be treating this as an enforcement and safeguarding issue and taking stronger action against the crime of modern slavery wherever it takes place.

Read the full story here:

King Charles’s “dear, oh dear” comments to Liz Truss were a sign of his “empathy” towards her, according to the foreign secretary, James Cleverly.

Footage emerged yesterday from the prime minister’s audience with the monarch at Buckingham Palace.

As Truss curtseyed, and said: “Your Majesty”, Charles replied: “So you’ve come back again?”

While Truss replied: “It’s a great pleasure,” he could only mutter: “Dear, oh dear. Anyway …”

00:21

The clip, which came after another day of turmoil in the economic markets and mutinous plotting on the Conservative party backbenches, quickly went viral.

Asked on LBC about the video, Cleverly accused host Nick Ferrari of characterising the King’s comments as a “political statement”.

Cleverly said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I view it as much more an empathetic statement. He recognises that all of us – everyone in the country – is dealing with a really tough winter ahead.

Here’s the clip in which the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, says removing Liz Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea”.

And some reaction from journalists to Cleverly’s morning round:

Michael Savage from the Observer says Cleverly was being evasive in refusing to rule out further U-turns, instead insisting the government would “absolutely stick” with its tax-cutting principles.

HuffPost UK’s Kevin Schofield says it’s astonishing senior cabinet figures are publicly discussing a change in leadership so soon after Truss’s appointment.

Kate McCann from TalkTV says Cleverly’s line gives some indication of how badly Truss’s circle think things are going.

Liverpool Echo’s Liam Thorp wonders how Cleverly thinks the British economy is doing, if he believes getting rid of Truss would be bad “politically and also economically”.

Attending a Nato meeting, the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said there was no risk that western allies would run out of arms supplies to aid Ukraine against Russia.

Wallace said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The UK-Danish joint-led International Fund is all about placing orders in a manufacturing space to make sure that we can go on between ‘23, ‘24, and keep going on.

He said the UK would provide Ukraine with air defence systems that would complement US-provided systems. Ukraine faced a barrage of missile strikes earlier this week, damaging civilian infrastructure and knocking out electricity supplies in some cities.

01:11

For more live updates from the Russia-Ukraine war, head over to our live blog:

ConservativeHome editor and former Tory MP, Paul Goodman, has said some Conservative backbenchers are considering pushing for Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt to replace Liz Truss as prime minister.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Goodman said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}All sorts of different people are talking about all sorts of different things because the Conservative backbenchers are casting around for a possible replacement for Kwasi Kwarteng, even for a possible replacement for Liz Truss. All sorts of names are being thrown about, Rishi Sunak, even Boris Johnson, Kit Malthouse, Sajid Javid.

One idea “doing the rounds” is for Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak to “come to some kind of arrangement and essentially take over”, Goodman added.

The pair are popular as between them they got “pretty much two-thirds of the votes of MPs”, he said.

Asked if this would be decided without the party members, he replied:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Yes, I suppose the arrangement would be to come to an agreement about one candidate so the members are a cut-out.

I have to say I’m not very enthusiastic about this kind of idea myself, nor am I enthusiastic about the prospects of the Conservative Party junking what would be its fourth leader in seven years.

Belfast is the place to be this week, underlining renewed efforts to find a settlement on the Northern Ireland protocol issue.

On Monday, it was the Northern Ireland secretary and minister Chris Heaton-Harris and Steve Baker. US state secretary Antony Blinken’s special adviser Derek Chollet was also there.

On Wednesday it was Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney’s turn.

Today a seven-member trade delegation from the European parliament will hold talks with civil society and the Business Brexit Working Group and party representatives.

The delegation is made up of MEPs Nathalie Loiseau (France), Bernd Lange and Sven Simon (Germany) Seán Kelly and Barry Andrews (Ireland), Inma Rodriguez Pinero (Spain) and Ernő Schaller-Baross (Hungary).

Kelly said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It is essential that we hear the issues of most concern to people and businesses first-hand. These are the people that will need to live with, and accept, the Northern Ireland Protocol. Their voices must be heard in the outcome of any agreed solution between the EU and the UK. I am particularly conscious that without an Assembly formed, Northern Ireland is somewhat lacking a clear voice on these issues, which is unfair and regretful.

Liz Truss is facing a rebellion from Jacob Rees-Mogg’s business department over plans to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland.

The prime minister and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, want to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land, the Guardian revealed earlier this week.

But her business secretary, Rees-Mogg, is understood to believe it is “unconservative” to tell farmers what they can and cannot do with their land. Her climate minister, Graham Stuart, said on Wednesday he would be speaking to Defra about the plans as more ground-mount solar is needed to meet renewable energy targets.

In a piece for the Guardian, Rees-Mogg, who has previously decried “climate alarmism”, insists he is convinced by the need to boost renewable energy. He also reveals new policies including loosening regulations for businesses to put solar power in place and giving homeowners grants to install panels on their houses.

In the piece, he says he is “not a green energy sceptic”, adding that his department would give “unprecedented support” to renewable energy sources. Rees-Mogg also brands coalmines and oil rigs as “dark satanic mills”, vowing to replace them with windfarms.

On solar, he adds:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We are exploring options to support low-cost finance to help householders with the upfront costs of solar installation, permitted development rights to support deployment of more small-scale solar in commercial settings and designing performance standards to further encourage renewables, including solar PV, in new homes and buildings.

Read the full piece by Jacob Rees-Mogg here:

Here are some more lines from James Cleverly’s morning interview round.

• Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said removing Liz Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea” and only worsen market turmoil.

• The PM deserves support to push through her economic growth plan, he said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets. I think that changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea, not just politically but also economically.

• He acknowledged that recent turmoil in the financial markets was linked to the mini-budget, but argued “many of the challenges we are facing are challenges shared by countries around the world”.

• He defended the decision by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to scrap the planned rise in corporation tax in his controversial mini-budget:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I think that it is absolutely right that we want to invest in businesses. It is absolutely right that we help them stay competitive, we help them stay afloat. We have got to make sure we can compete internationally with the other places businesses can choose to locate. We have got to make sure we are tax-competitive.

• He declined to rule out further U-turns but insisted the government should “absolutely” stick with Kwarteng’s budget:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Ultimately, what that mini-budget was about was protecting tens of millions of people from unaffordable energy prices. That was the bulk of that proposal. It was about making sure that taxes for 30 million people were reduced a little bit and those are really strong principles. I think we should absolutely stick with those.

• He said the planned statement by the chancellor on 31 October will set out a more “holistic” view of the government’s plans, but the “foundations” of the mini-budget were “really key for the growth agenda the prime minister has put forward”.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the government will be making “professional and tough decisions” on public spending.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}There are always areas of public expenditure where we can make sure that the growth doesn’t outmatch the growth in economy.

Defence is going to grow to 3% of GDP. That is above inflation growth. That is committed to. There are other areas where we are going to have to keep it much closer to inflationary growth, but the Prime Minister said we are not going to be cutting public services.

We are going to be making professional and tough decisions and we are going to grow the economy because the economic growth is going to be the thing that unlocks all those options for us. They are not mutually exclusive.

He added that people should not have been surprised by Liz Truss’s plans for growth which formed the basis of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.

The PM had “said she would protect people and businesses who were facing an unprecedented increase in their energy bills”, Cleverly said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}That is what she said she would do. That is what she is doing. The fact that that seems to have taken some people by surprise is not her fault. We are going to stick with the plan. The plan is to grow the economy.

Good morning. Liz Truss is facing intense pressure from within her own Conservative party to abandon her economic plan following a market backlash to the measures.

The prime minister’s leadership is in fresh peril with calls growing among senior Tories to reverse more proposed tax cuts and MPs accusing her of “trashing” Conservative values.

The PM’s allies rallied around her after she endured a bruising appearance at a meeting of her backbenchers on Wednesday evening. MPs described her performance as “just appalling” and raised serious concerns about mortgage rates and polls showing a hefty Labour lead.

At a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee, the chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon, told Truss she had “trashed the last 10 years of workers’ Conservatism”. One MP later described the atmosphere as “funereal” and another described the situation as impossible.

But foreign secretary, James Cleverly, came to her defence this morning, arguing that getting rid of Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea”.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Cleverly said the government needed to do things that would “bring certainty to the markets”.

He acknowledged that recent turmoil in the financial markets was linked to the mini-budget, but argued “many of the challenges we are facing are challenges shared by countries around the world”.

Cleverly said:

.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I think changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea politically and also economically.

We are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill – second reading.

2pm. The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, is in the US to meet with IMF leaders in Washington DC.

2pm. Work and pensions secretary, Chloe Smith, at the Policy Exchange in Westminster.

2pm. Weekly Covid-19 surveillance report, from the UK Health Security Agency.