Whining Liz Truss has claimed it is “unfair” for struggling families to blame her for soaring mortgage rates.
The unapologetic ex-PM today refused to accept responsibility for tanking the economy as she continued her shameless bid to whitewash her appalling record.
In her first interview since leaving No10, Ms Truss dismissed complaints that households have been lumbered with higher mortgage costs thanks to her botched mini-Budget.
But in a small bit of good news, the walking disaster zone said “no” when asked if she would like to be PM again.
Ms Truss was forced out of Downing Street after just 49 days after she announced a tax-cutting bonanza, with giveaways for the super-rich.
The carnage sent the pound tumbling and mortgage rates soaring - as pension funds came close to collapse.
She had to U-turn on nearly all her plans and sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, but was still forced out by Tory MPs. She is the shortest-serving PM in British history.
Asked by the Spectator if she regrets running for the top job, Ms Truss said: “No, I don’t regret it.”
But on the possibility of making a comeback, she said “no” when questioned on whether she would like to return to No10.
She added: “I definitely want to be part of promoting a pro-growth agenda, I definitely want to carry on as an MP. I’m positive about the future of Britain and I’m positive about the future of the Conservative Party.
“I think we need to start building more of a strong intellectual base. But I’m not desperate to get back into Number 10, no.”
Mortgage rates have risen dramatically since Ms Truss entered No10 this summer.
The cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage stood at an eye-watering 5.75% last month, according to Moneyfacts, compared to 3.95% in August, the month before her disastrous mini-budget.
It is estimated 1.4million people will have to renew their mortgage this year, meaning they will be stung by the higher interest rates.
Despite the catastrophic end to her premiership, Ms Truss said she would keep pushing for tax cuts.
“We need to be better at making the argument,” she told the Spectator. “ We need to think about making the argument.
“Obviously, I’ve got more time available now to think about these things and make the argument. And that’s what I want to do.”
She added: “I believe that I’ve learnt a lot in my time in government, I understand what some of the pitfalls are, I’ve been through the mill on this and we do need to do things differently.”
Pushed on whether people struggling with higher mortgage rates would think she is the right person to be making economic arguments, Ms Truss said: “I do want to address this - because we’ve been living in a very low interest rate world and mortgage rates have been going up.”
She said there was a “specific issue around the time” of her mini-Budget related to problems with pension funds.
“So I don’t think it’s fair to blame interest rises on what we did. I think that’s unfair,” she added.
In a surprising admission, Ms Truss said neither she nor Mr Kwarteng had been aware of problems with pension funds.
“The fact is we didn’t know about the issue,” she said. “We didn’t necessarily understand the issue, and that is a difficult position to be in as PM and chancellor.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer dismissed Ms Truss’s economic advice as he demanded a general election.
Speaking to broadcasters in Bristol, he said: "I have to say, my heart sank at the idea of former prime ministers taking the stage to tell us about what they did. They did huge damage to our country and to our economy.
"And there are millions of people across the country still paying the price for the failures, well, 13 years failure of this Conservative government, so what the country needs is for us to move forward.
"We're not going be able to do that until we have a general election now and a fresh start under Labour.”
Tory MP Caroline Nokes urged Ms Truss to keep quiet. “A period of silence would be helpful,” she told the BBC’s Politics Live.
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