Liz Truss has said she will lead the Conservatives into the next general election – as a new poll shows her party faces a wipeout.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday evening, the prime minister blamed “circumstances” for having to U-turn on virtually her entire political programme.
But said she still believed in her small-state economic philosophy and only admitted that she had gone “too far and too fast”.
The latest survey by pollster Redfield & Wilton released Monday put the Tories 36 points behind Labour, down even on the dire lows of the previous week.
And another by Deltapoll suggested the Tories were 32 points behind, with all pollsters agreed that Labour is on course to win a landslide.
But asked whether she would lead the Tories into the next general election, Ms Truss was emphatic and said: “I will lead the Conservatives into the next general election.”
Pressed by her interviewer, Ms Truss said she had been “elected to this position to deliver for the country”.
“We simply cannot afford to spend our time talking about the Conservative Party, rather than what we need to deliver. That is my message to my colleagues,” she added.
Under Tory party rules Ms Truss cannot be removed as leader against her will within the first year – but senior MPs have reportedly already met to decide whether the rules can be changed to make an exception.
If the polls become reality at a general election the Tories would be left with just a rump of seats and probably win fewer MPs than the Scottish National Party (SNP), who would become the official opposition.
Ms Truss told her interviewer that she wanted to “accept responsibility and say sorry, for the mistakes that have been made”.
But pushed on whether she stood by her economic philosophy, which had so backfired in the last few weeks, the prime minister replied:
“I do believe in a high growth low tax economy. What I recognise though is we do face very difficult circumstances at the moment.
“We’ve got rising interest rates across the world. We’ve got the war in Ukraine, perpetrated by Putin and what we had to do, and what I had to take the decision as prime minister to do, is make sure we acted to protect economic stability.
“Now, I do believe we need to get things in Britain moving faster, to help grow our economy. I want to get on with the road projects, the infrastructure we need the new energy supplies we need because we become far too dependent on global energy prices. But I recognise we did act too far and too fast and I’ve made the necessary adjustments to that.”
She also declined to say her former leadership rival Rishi Sunak was right to warn her approach would lead to catastrophe.
“We had a very robust leadership campaign this summer where we debated ideas, we debated philosophy,” she said.
“I’m committed to a low tax high growth economy, but I have to reflect the real issues we face and my responsibility as prime minister is making sure that we have economic stability, that we protect people’s jobs.”
The next general election must be held by early 2025, and Ms Truss can choose when to call it as prime minister, following the repeal of the fixed term parliament act.
