TRUSS RACE AGAINST TIME TO EASE CRISIS

DZ DEPUTY SAYS CABINET MUST DELIVER ‘AT PACE’ TO TACKLE MOUNTING ENERGY WOES

- Nicholas Cecil, David Bond and Rachael Burford

LIZ TRUSS held her first Cabinet today as she sought to deliver “at pace” on her radical plans to cut taxes, ease the cost-of-living crisis and deal with the huge backlog in NHS treatment.

On her first full day in office, the new Prime Minister gathered her top team in No10 as she sought to get her premiership off to a flying start.

However, she faced immediate controversy over the make-up of her new Cabinet given that it has seen an almost total purge of supporters of her leadership rival Rishi Sunak. Deputy Prime Minister Thérèse Coffey defended the new Cabinet, which for the first time includes no white men in the four great offices of state, with Ms Truss as Prime Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor, James Cleverly Foreign Secretary and Suella Braverman Home Secretary. Ms Coffey, a long-time friend of Ms Truss who was also made Health Secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “In terms of the Cabinet moving forward, clearly we have got one of the most diverse Cabinets ever.

“We want to get on at pace to deliver with this bold economic plan that is being set out during the course of the next few weeks.”

Pressed on criticism that the new Cabinet was made up of chums, old friends and loyal allies, she added: “A lot of the people taking up roles will show that they have been considered, competent and compassionate in how they have approached politics.