Liz Truss backs tax-cutting plan and fracking in testing local radio interviews

Across a string of uncomfortable local radio interviews this morning, the Prime Minister blamed “global” economic pressures such as the continuing war in Ukraine for the current state of the pound, rather than the budget announced on Friday.

The interviews saw Ms Truss struggle to answer questions on local issues such as fracking or dead sea-life washing up on beaches as well as integral questions on the safety of the public’s pensions.

On BBC Radio Bristol, Ms Truss was asked to guarantee to listeners that their pensions “are safe”.

“The Bank of England does a very good job on delivering financial stability,” she replied, and when pressed again for not answering the question, she added that “the Bank of England does that and they do a very good job of it.”

In an interview with BBC Radio Leeds, Ms Truss was faced with questioning over how both she and the Chancellor had kept a low-profile despite the economic turmoil which had seen the pound fall to record lows, and seen the Bank of England forced to intervene on pensions.

Similarly the Prime Minister was seen to struggle when questioned by BBC Stoke about forcing mortgage fees to increase due to her economic plans.

“We need to borrow more this winter for the energy crisis that we’re facing and I think that’s the right thing to do,” she said.

“I don’t think anyone is arguing we shouldn’t have acted on energy,” Ms Truss added, when asked specifically about how we will now be paying more on mortgages than we would have saved with energy.

Local issues such as fracking also saw little more detail on the policy, with the crucial question of “local consent” still left unclear by the Prime Minister and central government, over a week after it emerged that it would be going ahead.

She told BBC Lancashire that she wouldn’t rule out the whole of Lancashire as a potential site for fracking and that work to identify which areas consent to fracking and which ones do not is still ongoing, with the Energy Secretary due to set out more details in the future.