Stop her... now!

Shares in £32bn slump. PM refuses to do a U-turn

- ASHLEY COWBURN and GRAHAM HISCOTT

IN a humiliating round of local radio interviews, Liz Truss was at times lost for words to defend the mini-Budget that sent the pound plummeting, wiped billions from shares, and trashed the mortgage market.

The PM finally spoke a week after her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's tax-cutting plans sent the economy into meltdown but her bid to address the chaos spectacularly backfired.

The FTSE 100 share index slumped 123.8 points at 6881.6, the lowest since July last year. Government borrowing costs which fell on Wednesday after the Bank of England launched a £65billion bond-buying spree to stop pension funds going bust then rose yesterday.

The pound fell again before recovering just 1.7 percent to $1.10.

In a nightmare day for Truss, and the Conservative Party, four major polling companies also recorded the highest-ever Labour leads. A Deltapoll gave Keir Starmer's party a 19-point lead, while a YouGov poll showed an incredible 33-point lead, Labour's highest since the 90s.