Liz Truss has FINALLY said sorry to Tory MPs - three days after her bizarre nine-minute press conference where she failed to apologise, No10 has said.
Her remarks came as Jeremy Hunt urged furious MPs to "give her a chance" and said he believed she would still be Prime Minister at Christmas.
After five Tory MPs publicly called for her to resign, the newly appointed Chancellor told Sky News he also ruled out running for the top job himself.
During a meeting with the One Nation Caucus of centre-right Tories, “the Prime Minister said she was sorry for some of the mistakes that have been made over the last few weeks,” her Press Secretary said.
Asked repeatedly if she said the word sorry he replied: “Yes.”
He added: “She said I’m sorry for some of the mistakes that have been made over the last couple of weeks, or words to that effect.
But Tory MP Simon Hoare gave a different version of events, saying the PM “admitted there had been mistakes” rather than actually saying the word sorry.
“I think she, in a very sincere way, was candid that mistakes have been made,” he said. “Some of those mistakes she admitted were avoidable mistakes.
“But I thought the tone, the language she adopted indicated a clear apology without doing sackcloth and ashes and flagellating herself.”
Asked if she apologised without saying the word sorry he replied: “That’s a good way of describing it.”
No10 tonight said the Prime Minister plans to stay and fight the 2024 election.
Tory party chairman Jake Berry claimed the meeting of the One Nation Group had been “very supportive”. He said: “The Prime Minister started by saying mistakes have been made. She acknowledged them.”
But another Tory MP who was at the meeting said: “Mostly you got the impression she'd been drugged.”
The MP added: “She wasn't as bad as I thought she'd be, but my bar is so low that so long as she vaguely answers the question I regard it as a triumph.”
Tory backbencher Simon Hoare demanded a reshuffle, saying: “I think we still have a basic problem that notwithstanding Jeremy Hunt’s return to government, we have a government which mirrors the Prime Minister’s thinking.
“And I think what’s needed in order to try to encourage all quarters of the party to feel they have something vested… is to make sure there is a wider range of views and voting histories in the leadership election sitting round the Cabinet table.”
But the PM’s Press Secretary said: “There’s no plans for any sort of reshuffle.”
She will be “getting people’s opinions about things and working with people across the party and you’re going to start seeing some of that over the next couple of weeks.”
“Part of the mistakes the PM acknowledged had been made over the last couple of weeks include things of that nature.”
Asked if she’d done enough to survive, Mr Hoare said: “That’s up to my parliamentary colleagues. I honestly don’t know.
“The whole idea of launching into a full blown leadership contest… is for the birds. It’s bizarre. But by definition one hasn’t got unlimited time.”
Mr Hoare added: “We had a slight personality cult under Boris Johnson. We don’t want to go into an ideology cult now."
