Truss admits ‘disruption’ in markets as S&P downgrades UK outlook – live

The Green Party has called for an emergency £75 billion tax package targeting polluters and the country’s wealthiest individuals, to fund a nationwide insulation and renewable energy programme.

At the party’s annual conference in Harrogate, co-leader Carla Denyer called for a new wealth tax on the richest 1% of households – starting with a marginal rate of 1% on those with £3.4 million, rising to 10% on those with £18.2 million and above.

She said there should be a “dirty profits tax” on North Sea oil and gas which would be used as a stepping stone towards a permanent carbon tax on polluting industries.

Families have been urged to take a photograph of their meter reading and do what they can to cut their energy use as prices spike from Saturday.

The amount that a household pays for each kilowatt hour of electricity it uses has risen to 34p from the already record 28p that families pay.

Gas prices are going from 7p to 10p per kilowatt hour under the new price cap.

It means that the typical household in the UK will spend around £2,500 on its energy bills – but those that use a lot of gas and electricity will naturally pay more.

Just a year earlier, gas had cost 4p per kilowatt hour for customers on the price cap and the charge for electricity was 21p.

The chancellor has defended his mini-budget by saying the government “had no other choice” than to do “something different” to spark the economy.

As the prime minister admitted the strategy had caused “disruption”, Kwasi Kwarteng said the public expected public spending would be tightly controlled.

“The British taxpayer expects their government to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, and we will deliver on that expectation,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

“Not all the measures we announced last week will be universally popular. But we had to do something different. We had no other choice.”

“One way of assessing the scale of the task facing Liz Truss at next week’s Conservative Party conference is to imagine drafting her speech for her.”

Sean O’Grady ponders what the PM might try in Birmingham.

Tory MPs are reportedly in talks with the Labour Party to defeat certain parts of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget.

Rebels are apparently in talks with the opposition to make sure that the government’s controversial new measures are brought to a vote in the House of Commons.

“So, Kwasi Kwarteng was warned. I have it on the highest, unimpeachable authority that the chancellor was told ahead of his tax-cutting measures that the markets would react badly.

Kwarteng apparently did not care, saying he was relaxed about the response. It’s bizarre, doesn’t make sense: a chancellor who apparently believes he is somehow impervious, on a mission, and hang the opposition.”

As the government’s energy bill cap kicks in, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has asked the public to stay alert to scams.

“Unprecedented government support is beginning this weekend, protecting families and businesses across the country from what was going to be an 80% increase in energy bills this winter,” he said.

“I also urge people today to stay alert to scams. This support will reach people automatically and there is no need to apply.”

Liz Truss has been accused of “repeatedly misleading” the public by claiming no one will pay energy bills above £2,500.

During her morning broadcast round on Friday, the prime minister told BBC Radio Kent the government had stepped in to ensure “nobody is paying fuel bills of more than £2,500”.

However, several analysts and experts have accused the prime minister of misleading the public.

The energy price cap is the maximum amount a utility company can charge an average customer in the UK per year for the amount of electricity and gas they use, preventing businesses from simply passing on cost increases to the consumer.

Joe Sommerlad reports on what the energy cap means for you:

Private renters are deserting the Tories following fears that Liz Truss will water down promises of new powers to challenge bad landlords, a poll says.

One in three tenants who voted for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election – a total of 400,000 people – now plan to vote for another party, the survey has found.

This so-called “rent wall” could deprive the Tories of key swing seats such as Hastings and Rye, Milton Keynes North and Gloucester, the analysis suggests.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more: