PM Liz Truss apologised to MPs in a private meeting (Picture: Reuters/AFP)
Prime Minister Liz Truss said ‘sorry’ to Tory backbenchers for her mistakes and admitted she ‘tried to do too much too soon’, in a private meeting.
The PM has been under increasing pressure after a disastrous first six weeks in Number 10.
She admitted to MPs she had made a series of mistakes – after a day in which her economic plans were almost totally dismantled and authority left in pieces.
The PM faces an increasing struggle to survive after new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tore up her flagship fiscal policies to ensure market ‘stability’.
He seemingly seized control of the government’s agenda barely three days after he was brought into No11 to replace Ms Truss’s sacked ally Kwasi Kwarteng.
Earlier today Truss also did not show up for Sir Keir Starmer’s urgent question because she was allegedly in a meeting with Sir Graham Brady, sources said.
Truss was late for urgent questions from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (Picture: Jessica Taylor / UK Parliament)
She was seen leaving parliament ahead of the private meeting (Picture: Reuters)
Suella Braverman was seen arriving at 10 Downing Street (Picture: PA)
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Simon Clarke also arrived to see the PM (Picture: PA)
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Jacob Rees-Mogg arring at Downing Street tonight (Picture: PA)
Truss has been under increasing pressure and has now reached out to other MPs (Picture: Getty)
She was held up in a ‘private’ and ‘pre-planned’ talk with the chairman of the 1922 Committee this afternoon, it was confirmed.
However she has now apologised to a host of Tory MPs in the One Nation group at a private meeting.
Her press secretary told journalists Truss admitted ‘we tried to do too much too quickly’ and added ‘The Prime Minister said she was sorry for some of the mistakes that have been made over the last few weeks.’
She stressed the need to push through the energy package and change to National Insurance contributions ‘quickly’, he added.
Ms Truss also condemned briefings against some parliamentary colleagues in the newspapers over the last couple of weekends, her press secretary said.
Meanwhile, she ‘confirmed her presence’ at Cop27, and ‘made clear that she does not decide where the King goes’.
There was no point on Monday at which Liz Truss thought her time was up, according to her press secretary.
He said her general mood had been ‘determined’ to do ‘what’s best for the country and deliver the Growth Plan’.
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MPs in the meeting gave slightly different accounts, with Simon Hoare suggesting she did apologise but not in so many words.
He told journalists: ‘I think she, in a very sincere way – and I was struck by her sincerity… she was candid that mistakes had been made. I think some of those mistakes she admitted were avoidable mistakes. But I thought that the tone, the language that she adopted, indicated a clear apology, without… flagellating herself in the middle of the room.’
Asked if that meant she apologised without saying the words, he said: ‘That’s a good way of describing it, yes.’
Alec Shelbrooke, MP for Elmet and Rothwell, said she did not say sorry while he was in the meeting, but he only got there part-way through.
Pressed on whether she said the words ‘I am sorry’, Ms Truss’s press secretary said: ‘Yeah.’
Following the conclusion of a meeting of the One Nation group of Tory MPs, journalists were also told there are no plans for a further reshuffle of the Cabinet.
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The Prime Minister apologised in a private meeting with Tory backbenchers after a disastrous day in Whitehall.