Rishi Sunak took aim at Liz Truss during his first address to the nation as prime minister saying "mistakes were made" while she was in office.
The new Prime Minister spoke on the steps of No 10 Downing Street after he was formally appointed by King Charles at Buckingham Palace. Sunak replaces Liz Truss who became the shortest-serving Prime Minister in UK history after being in office for just 49 days.
Sunak's first speech as PM lasted five minutes and 56 seconds - longer than all of the equivalent speeches by prime ministers in recent decades except for Boris Johnson in 2019, who spoke for 11 minutes and 13 seconds.
When Liz Truss made her first speech as prime minister in Downing Street on September 6, she spoke for four minutes and four seconds.
In his first speech, Sunak said "some mistakes were made" by Truss, adding: "Not born of ill will, or bad intentions.
"Quite the opposite in fact, but mistakes nonetheless. And I have been elected as leader of my party and your Prime Minister in part to fix them. And that work begins immediately. I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this Government's agenda.
"This will mean difficult decisions to come. But you saw me during Covid doing everything I could to protect people and businesses with schemes like furlough.
"There are always limits, more so now than ever. But I promise you this - I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today."
It came as Boris Johnson offered his "congratulations" to Sunak, adding that "on this historic day, this is the moment for every Conservative to give our new PM their full and wholehearted support".
Truss used her farewell speech to stress the need to be "bold" as she defended the tax-cutting agenda that sparked economic chaos and led to her downfall.
After seven chaotic weeks as prime minister, Truss celebrated reversing the national insurance hike imposed by Sunak when he was chancellor.
She warned from Downing Street that the nation continues to "battle through a storm", but insisted she believes "brighter days lie ahead".
"From my time as prime minister, I'm more convinced than ever that we need to be bold and confront the challenges we face," she added.
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