Liz Truss to dodge MPs’ questions, sending Penny Mordaunt instead

Sir Keir Starmer secured urgent question in bid to force PM to the despatch box

Liz Truss is to dodge MPs’ questions on the economic chaos caused by her mini-Budget, sending Penny Mordaunt to the House of Commons in her place.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle granted Sir Keir Starmer an urgent question directed at the PM, but Downing Street said that the Leader of Commons would reply to the Labour leader in her place.

Borrowing one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite put-downs, a Labour source described the prime minister as “frit” - meaning “frightened”.

The urgent question was tabled in a bid to force Ms Truss to answer MPs’ questions after she resisted Labour demands for a statement to the Commons today to explain the reversal of the bulk of her mini-Budget in a series of massive U-turns.

Instead, the statement will be made by chancellor Jeremy Hunt, with the PM expected to sit silently at his side on the government frontbench.

The urgent question, submitted in Sir Keir’s name, reads: “To ask the Prime Minister to make a statement on the replacement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the current economic situation”.

It will be heard ahead of Mr Hunt’s statement, giving MPs around an hour to quiz Ms Mordaunt on the state of the government.

A Labour spokesperson said that if Ms Truss had “a shred of authority”, she would have come in person to explain herself after days of “attempting to dodge the questions the public has”.

"With the chancellor junking the majority of its kamikaze budget today, the prime minister should have come to the House to make a statement,” said the spokesperson.

"The damage is done. Mortgages are rising and the cost of living crisis out of control.”