Liz Truss today admitted she should have done a "better job" after her tax-slashing, high-borrowing mini-Budget triggered disaster on the markets.
The Prime Minister refused to U-turn on her plan, which will cost £72bn in borrowing next year alone, despite a Tory revolt and threats to block scrapping the 45p top tax rate.
She also refused eight times to rule out swingeing real-terms public sector or benefit cuts, saying: "What I'm going to make sure is we get value for money for the taxpayer."
But she admitted on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "I do want to say to people, I understand their worries about what has happened this week.
"I do stand by the package we announced, and I stand by the fact we announced it quickly, because we had to act. But I do accept we should have laid the ground better. I do accept that.
"And I have learned from that, and I will make sure in future we do a better job of laying the ground."
Ms Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have been personally ringing round Tory MPs to prevent a revolt over her decision to scrap the 45p top tax rate - handing 660,000 £150k-plus earners an extra £10,000 a year each.
Ex-minister Michael Gove today said the tax cuts for the rich were "a display of the wrong values" - and refused three times to say he'll back them in Parliament.
A Budget revolt by moderate Tories could lead to mass suspensions - as Tory chairman Jake Berry warned any Conservative who voted against the Budget would lose the whip. But in the past rebel MPs have been more likely to abstain, rather than vote against.
Ms Truss tried to shift the blame to her Chancellor - admitting she did not discuss scrapping the 45p rate with her Cabinet and "it was a decision the Chancellor made".
Boris Johnson loyalist and Tory MP Nadine Dorries accused her of "throwing your Chancellor under a bus on the first day of conference".
But Ms Truss defended Kwasi Kwarteng's decision to attend a champagne-fuelled party on the night of the Budget with the Tory chairman at a Tory donor's house, where financiers reportedly urged him to go further with tax cuts.
She chuckled knowingly: “The Chancellor meets business people all the time. That’s his job. I do not manage Kwasi Kwarteng’s diary, believe me.”
Interest rates are set to surge after the Bank of England - which bailed out gilts to the tune of £65billion to stop pension funds from collapse - warned it will do whatever is necessary to stabilise the economy.
Ms Truss said she had taken the "right decision to borrow more this winter to deal with the extraordinary circumstances we face".
But her Chancellor admitted the meltdown in the markets has "really ruined my sleep".
As millions of Brits face paying hundreds of pounds a month more for mortgages, Kwasi Kwarteng told the Mail on Sunday: "One of the things that really ruined my sleep is the markets. That sort of thing is trying.
"I've had difficult times reacting to what's happening but you know, I am very confident that this is the right thing to do and I am a really, really great believer in Britain."
Four pollsters last week gave Labour their biggest-ever leads over the Tories - and last night Liz Truss's approval rating fell to minus 37, worse than Boris Johnson's final figures when in office.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves' said Liz Truss' interview was "shocking" adding: "The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are doing some sort of mad experiment with the UK economy and trickle down economics. It has failed before and it will fail again."
Keir Starmer, who has demanded a recall of Parliament, today blasted the "kamikaze Budget", writing in the Sunday Telegraph: "Homes will be lost. Pensions are under threat. This is a crisis made in Downing Street, paid for by working people"
"I have listened to the ludicrous excuses trotted out by the Prime Minister and her remaining acolytes. The reality is simple and unarguable. They have crashed the economy by handing enormous unfunded tax cuts to those who least need them."
During her BBC interview Liz Truss repeatedly refused to rule out cutting public services and benefits to fund her plan to slash taxes for the wealthiest Brits.
The under-fire Prime Minister was asked SIX times whether she would impose cuts to public services in the wake of the mini-Budget, and failed to rule them out.
She also refused twice to commit to raising benefits in line with CPI inflation as promised in April 2023 - which would amount to a real-terms cut.
But she did guarantee pensions would rise by September's inflation figure next April, saying: "I’ve committed to the triple lock”.
In an excruciating moment, she struggled to answer how many people had actually voted for her plans - which barely featured in the 2019 Tory manifesto.
“What do you mean by that?” she said.
West Midlands mayor Andy Street became the latest Tory figure to publicly condemn the ditching of the 45p top rate of income tax.
Backbencher James Cartlidge added: "Cutting tax for top earners whilst reducing benefits in a cost of living crisis is unacceptable."
Former minister Julian Smith tweeted: “The Government must scrap 45p, take responsibility for the link between last Friday & the impact on peoples mortgages & make clear that it will do everything possible to stabilise markets & protect public services.”
Ms Truss refused to back down on her plans, but also tried to steer talk away from her tax cuts for the rich and onto growth and her plan to cap the average family's energy bills at £2,500 a year.
"I will do whatever I can to win the hearts and minds of my colleagues across the conversation party because I believe we need to grow the size of the pie," she added.
After falsely claiming no household would pay more than £2,500 a year for electricity and gas, Ms Truss corrected herself when prompted by the BBC. She said: “This is the bill for an average family but what we are preventing is those extraordinary bills that people were expecting.
“It is a big energy package and it was the biggest part of our mini-Budget.”
She said she was trying to avoid “a serious economic slowdown that would have real difficulties for people”.
Labour have only promised six months of fully-costed energy bills support so far - and it was announced before Liz Truss announced her two-year package.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves today told the BBC: "We support a package for two years." But sources clarified that Labour did not support the way the government is funding its package, and Labour has not outlined its own two-year plan yet.
Calling for an increase in windfall taxes, but not saying exactly how much, she added: "The only difference is... how you will pay for it. The government's plan is all funded by borrowing."
