UK leader Liz Truss faces test in Parliament, seeks lifeline

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss faces a House of Commons grilling Wednesday from a hostile opposition — and her own furious Conservative Party — as she tries to fend off calls to quit over her botched economic plan.

Truss is set to attend the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session two days after newly appointed Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt ripped up the tax-cutting package unveiled by the prime minister's new government less than a month ago.

The package of unfunded tax cuts announced Sept. 23 sparked turmoil on financial markets, hammered the value of the pound and increased the cost of U.K. government borrowing. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to prevent the crisis spreading to the wider economy and putting pensions at risk.

Under intense political and economic pressure, Truss last week fired her ally Kwasi Kwarteng as Treasury chief, replacing him with Cabinet veteran Hunt. On Monday Hunt scrapped almost all of Truss’ tax cuts, along with her flagship energy policy and her promise of no public spending cuts. He said the government will need to save billions of pounds and there are “many difficult decisions” to be made before he sets out a medium-term fiscal plan on Oct. 31.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Conservatives to give Truss another chance, saying “mistakes happen."

“What you’ve got to do is recognize when they’ve happened and have humility to make changes when you see things didn’t go right,” he said.

Official figures released Wednesday showed U.K. inflation rose to 10.1% in September, returning to a 40-year high first hit in July, as the soaring cost of food squeezed household budgets. While inflation is high around the world – driven up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its effect energy supplies – polls show most...