Queen appoints Truss as prime ministerWe’ve now got a picture of Liz Truss meeting the Queen. This is the audience where the Queen was formally appointing Truss prime minister.
A photograph is all we’re going to get. TV cameras are not allowed to record these meetings, and even when they retire prime ministers reveal almost nothing about their meetings with the monarch. The Queen, of course, has said even less over the past 70 years about her audiences with her prime ministers. Truss is her 15th.
The Queen meets Liz Truss at Balmoral. Photograph: Jane Barlow/AP
Chris Giles, economics editor at the Financial Times, has welcomed the news that Liz Truss seems to be planning to finance her energy bills price freeze – which could cost £90bn – through borrowing rather than through a deferred charge on consumers.
It appears that the new Truss government has decided to finance energy support transparently through government borrowing
This is a welcome and sensible move
— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) September 6, 2022 But he also thinks this could lead to interest rates going up.
The big issue will be how much the Bank of England thinks it needs to offset fiscal largess with monetary contraction
My bet – quite a lot…. t.co/qI7KTbkn7I
— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) September 6, 2022 Gavin Barwell, chief of staff to Theresa May when she was prime minister, has posted an interesting thread on Twitter, saying that Liz Truss’s cabinet will be one of the least experienced in modern times. It starts here but is worth reading in full.
Later today, @trussliz will begin appointing her Cabinet. If the pre-briefing is right, she risks repeating @BorisJohnson’s mistake of favouring allies and it will be one of the least experienced in modern times – think Kwarteng/Cleverly/Braverman vs Howe/Carrington/Whitelaw 1/n
— Gavin Barwell (@GavinBarwell) September 6, 2022 Families will be getting poorer this winter even with a big energy bills support package, MPs toldHouseholds “will be getting poorer” over the coming months even with further financial support to freeze Britons’ energy bills, MPs heard this morning. That was one of the messages that emerged when the Commons business committee took evidence from thinktanks, campaigners and other experts on the cost of living crisis this morning.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said even a sizeable rescue package would not fully protect people. He said:
Even with the big policy announcement this week, households will be getting poorer.
They don’t have lots of non-essential spending and luxuries they can cut to pay their energy bills and that context is really worrying.
Thousands of people will have their energy cut off this winter.
Clare Moriarty, the chief executive of Citizens Advice, said the cost of living crisis was already here for people. She said:
We estimate that at least one in five people won’t be able to pay energy bills in October if nothing is done.
We hear the messages about support packages, but right here on the ground we are already seeing very large numbers of people who simply cannot keep lights on and food on the table.
And Tom Waters, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said it would be hard for the UK to avoid a recession. He said:
When you are seeing inflation hit 10%, and even higher, but earnings are not keeping up with it, you would expect that to feed through to consumer spending whatever measures. It’s difficult to see how you could avoid a pretty severe hit to the economy.
Liz Truss has taken off from Aberdeen airport and is now flying back to London. The BBC’s Alex Partridge has posted a link to the Flightradar24 page tracking her flight.
Journalists outside Balmoral at lunchtime earlier today, covering the arrival of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to see the Queen, when it was raining heavily. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianBoris Johnson has left a legacy of scandal, sleaze and high inflation, according to Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner. Responding to Johnson’s farewell speech from Downing Street (see 9.01am), she said:
If you heard Boris Johnson’s speech this morning, you’d think everything was rosy and great.
Actually, the legacy is scandal, sleaze, the highest inflation for decades, cost of living crisis, people’s standard of living going down, we’ve seen the highest tax burden on the UK and we’ve seen GP waiting lists going up, we’ve seen the NHS engulfed in a crisis, we’ve seen our public services really demoralised.
He talked about levelling up, but Northern Rail has been levelled down, we’ve seen levelling down across the United Kingdom and partying when people quite frankly couldn’t see their relatives, and there was no acknowledgement of the scandalous behaviour from Boris Johnson – and of course Liz Truss was part of that cabinet.
I thought it was astonishing that he thought it was a good laugh and said” ‘Bye, I’ve been a rocket and it’s been great’, when actually, it’s been a damp squib and everyone’s poorer as a result of it.
Sturgeon says UK government should cancel planned energy price cap rise in OctoberThe UK government must cancel the October energy price cap rise and freeze energy prices at the current level, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
As PA Media reports, delivering her programme for government, the first minister said a freeze on bills would deliver “immediate relief to households and also help lower inflation, easing the wider cost crisis”.
The freeze must be applied to businesses and to the public and third sectors, Sturgeon added, and additional cash support should be offered to those already struggling.
She also called for greater powers to borrow to be granted to the Scottish government.
Nicola Sturgeon addressing MSPs today. Photograph: BBC NewsAccording to the Telegraph’s Camilla Turner, the Liz Truss team have also been finding it hard getting suitable cabinet appointees to serve at international trade, transport, education and culture.
The new secretaries of state for Trade, Transport, Education and Culture have proved the most problematic to fill, according to a senior Government source.
— Camilla Turner (@camillahmturner) September 6, 2022 “Kemi and Penny have been difficult. They both think they have enough clout to hold out for something better than what they have been offered,” they said.
— Camilla Turner (@camillahmturner) September 6, 2022 “Kemi was offered Transport but didn’t want it. And there was the question about whether Nadine would carry on. Now she has resigned so that frees up the space.”
— Camilla Turner (@camillahmturner) September 6, 2022 “Giving Culture or Education to Kemi would give her too much of a platform,” the source explained, given how vocal she has been on issues of culture wars and free speech.
— Camilla Turner (@camillahmturner) September 6, 2022 Liz Truss has reportedly found it hard to find a suitable candidate to be Northern Ireland secretary. The current one, Shailesh Vara, got the job when Brandon Lewis resigned in July over Boris Johnson’s handling of the Chris Pincher scandal, and Vara was never expected to stay in post long-term.
Sajid Javid and Penny Morduant are already said to have turned the job down, and my colleague Aubrey Allegretti says Chris Heaton-Harris, the chief whip, is the latest figure being lined up for a residence in Hillsborough Castle.
Sources say Chris Heaton-Harris (current chief whip) is the latest name in the frame to be next Northern Ireland secretary.
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) September 6, 2022 Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor, says what seems to be the latest version of the Liz Truss energy bills rescue package (different options have been considered, and written up by reporters) could add £100bn to government borrowing.
1/The latest update on the governments anticipated intervention in the energy market would see over a hundred billion pounds added to government borrowing. The government is reluctant to see money added to customer bills for up to 20 years to repay government backed loans….
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) September 6, 2022 2/to the energy companies and its also reluctant to add the cost to general taxation given their pledges to be a tax cutting government. So the third option is to just borrow the money and add to the UK’s overall outstanding debt. Kwasi Kwarteng the Chancellor elect has already..
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) September 6, 2022 3/ indicate the government is prepared to do this and it would be consistent with the Truss position that the UK needs to break free of the Treasury’s stingy orthodox thinking on spending. However, at an estimated cost in excess of £100 billion, its quite a chink of change to…
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) September 6, 2022 4/borrow at the same time as you are cutting taxes and boosting spending on defence. Team Truss say that over time, new energy supply measures – such as cutting the link between renewable sources and the gas price – will lower costs while a growing economy…
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) September 6, 2022 5/will shrink the proportion of overall debt to the size of the economy. Kwasi Kwarteng said the government would borrow in a fiscally prudent way. Putting such a large intervention on the never never may raise some eyebrows. END
— Simon Jack (@BBCSimonJack) September 6, 2022 Liz Truss has found it hard to find an MP willing to serve as energy minister under Jacob Rees-Mogg at the business department, the Sun’s Natasha Clark says.
Hearing that Jacob Rees Mogg is expected to take on the role of business secretary *and* the junior minister’s responsibilities of energy and climate change later today
Word is at least two Tories have turned down the jr role which would have worked closely with him
— Natasha Clark (@NatashaC) September 6, 2022 Rishi-backer Greg Hands is getting cleared out after his summer attacks on Team Truss – apparently they haven’t asked him to stay.
Sounds like concerns about JRM’s climate views have left her unable to fill it
— Natasha Clark (@NatashaC) September 6, 2022 Earlier this year Rees-Mogg, who is currently the Brexit opportunities minister but he is expected to be promoted to business secretary in the reshuffle, said “every last drop” of oil and gas should be extracted from the North Sea.