Liz Truss pledges an 'aspiration nation' after storm of energy crisis

Liz Truss said that she will make the UK an “aspiration nation” after it “rides out the storm” of the winter energy crisis during her first speech as Prime Minister.

The former foreign secretary took over from Boris Johnson yesterday after meeting the Queen at Balmoral, after her predecessor left with a swipe at the MPs who brought him down.

Emerging from a car on steps of Downing Street following a heavy downpour, Ms Truss said she has “three early priorities” in her premiership, expanding on her first words as Tory leader on Monday.

She said that she will “get Britain working again” through cutting taxes, as well as through reform, a nod to her ambition to change workers’ rights in the UK which will be met with strong opposition by trade unions.

Her second priority will be to deal with the energy crisis, pledging that she will act “this week” to deal with energy bills, with an intervention understood to be prepared for Thursday.

Finally she said that she would “put the health service on a firm footing” to make sure that the public can get doctors’ appointments and NHS services that they are currently lacking.

In a glimpse of what Liz Truss’ commitment to levelling up will look like, Ms Truss said that she wanted to transform Britain into an “aspiration nation”.

She said that this would constitute “high-paying jobs, safe streets and where everyone everywhere has the opportunities they deserve”.

“I will take action this day, and action every day, to make it happen,” she added.

Like her predecessor, Boris Johnson, she noted that there were issues in the UK that were “holding Britain back”.

She said that in order to tackle this, her premiership would look at building more roads, homes, hospitals and schools.

“We need more investment and great jobs in every town and city across our country” Ms Truss said, adding that she wanted to “reduce the burden on families and help people get on in life”.

Despite warnings by senior Conservatives such as Bernard Jenkin that Ms Truss needed to “level with the British people about how utterly dire the situation is”, the Prime Minister struck a more optimistic tone.

“We shouldn’t be daunted by the challenges we face,” she said in her speech, adding: “As strong as the storm may be, I know that the British people are stronger”.

I am confident that together we can ride out the storm, we can rebuild our economy, and we can become the modern brilliant Britain that I know we can be.

Ms Truss last night began appointing her top team ahead of today’s first cabinet meeting and Prime Minister’s Questions, where she will face Sir Keir Starmer.

It is understood that an intervention on Liz Truss’ economic plan to freeze energy bills will be made by Labour today, after the party did not provide a lengthy criticism of her policy yesterday.

Last night following her appointment as Health Secretary, Therese Coffey revealed her four priorities in the job which will be used to deliver Ms Truss’ commitment on the NHS.

“We’ve got priorities A, B, C, D – ambulances, backlogs, care, D – doctors and dentists. And we’re going to work through that and we’ll make sure that we’re delivering for the patients,” she told Sky News.