Tories threaten rebellion as Gove says tax plan is ‘not Conservative’

Liz Truss is struggling to win over Conservative MPs to back her controversial mini-budget, with some even threatening all-out rebellion amid fears they will once again become known as the “nasty party”.

- Pippa Crerar, Jessica Elgot, Peter Walker and Aubrey Allegretti

The prime minister was faced with a rising drumbeat of discontent that was overshadowing the Tory conference in Birmingham last night after she insisted she would stand by her plans to cut the top rate of income tax and ram through spending cuts.

The former cabinet minister Michael Gove launched a broadside at Truss’s economic plans, saying it was “not Conservative” to fund tax cuts from borrowing or trimming the welfare budget, and warning that she had to change course or risk her mini-budget being voted down.

However, the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, will pledge today to “stay the course” with a “sound, credible” plan, which he will insist is “backed by an iron-clad commitment” to fiscal discipline despite the economic turbulence unleashed by his mini-budget.

Truss offered a sliver of remorse for the way the mini-budget was received after it led to a temporary collapse in the pound, a rebuke from the International Monetary Fund and warnings that interest rates could be raised again.

The prime minister sought to quell fury over her handling of the economy but then firmly doubled down on her tax plans and refused to rule out public spending cuts and a real-term drop in benefits to pay for them. She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I do accept we should have laid the ground better, I do accept that and I have learnt from that and I will make sure that in future we do a better job of laying the ground.”