UK's Truss tries to shake off dismal start with party speech

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss will say Wednesday that all change brings disruption as she tries to convince her Conservative Party — and the country — that her tax-cutting economic agenda will bring prosperity, despite the turmoil it has unleashed.

Truss is due to close a tumultuous Conservative conference with a speech to delegates in the central English city of Birmingham. Many are in a glum mood after a four-day gathering that saw policy U-turns from the government and open rebellion from lawmakers who fear the party is doomed to lose the next national election.

Truss says she will stick with her plan to reshape Britain’s economy through tax cuts and deregulation in a bid to end years of sluggish growth and create "a new Britain for the new era.”

In her most important speech since taking office a month ago, she will say that “whenever there is change, there is disruption.”

“Not everyone will be in favor,” Truss will say, according to extracts of the speech released by her office. “But everyone will benefit from the result — a growing economy and a better future. That is what we have a clear plan to deliver.”

That plan already has many critics inside the Conservative Party. Truss’ first big policy, a stimulus package that includes 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) in tax cuts to be paid for by government borrowing, alarmed financial markets when it was announced Sept. 23. The pound plunged to a record low against the dollar, and the Bank of England was forced to intervene to prop up the bond market and stop a wider economic crisis.

Under political and financial pressure, the government on Monday scrapped the most unpopular part of its budget package: a tax cut on earnings above 150,000 pounds ($167,000) a year. That will save about 2...