‘I’m a fighter not a quitter’, says Liz Truss as she channels Peter Mandelson

Liz Truss channelled Peter Mandelson at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday lunchtime as she told MPs “I’m a fighter, not a quitter”.

Ms Truss pointed to her energy support package and reversal of April’s National Insurance rise during the first few weeks of her premiership as she sought to convince her critics.

The Prime Minister has faced rising pressure in recent weeks after a series of U-turns and six of her own MPs calling for her resignation.

Sir Keir Starmer read out several of her abandoned economic policies – including abolishing the 45p top rate of tax, tax-free shopping and the two-year freeze for all Britons’ energy bills – with Labour MPs shouting “gone” after each one.

The Labour leader asked: “They’re all gone, so why is she still here?”

Ms Truss replied: “I have been in office for just under two months, and I have delivered the energy price guarantee making sure that people aren’t paying £6,000 bills this winter.

“I’ve reversed the National Insurance increase and I’ve also taken steps, and we will be taking steps, to crack down on the militant unions. I am a fighter and not a quitter.

“That is more of a record of action than the honourable gentleman in his two-and-a-half years in the job.”

Lord Mandelson, the former Labour frontbencher, said on his re-election as an MP in 2001 that his critics had “underestimated me because I am a fighter – and a fighter, not a quitter”.

His remarks came four months after the former Hartlepool MP resigned from the Government for the second time after he was accused of using his powers to influence a passport application.

Lord Mandelson responded to Ms Truss by saying: “Unlike me, she’s not going to be winning Hartlepool at the next election – or even Hertsmere.”

Ms Truss opened Wednesday’s session by making another public apology for the chaos that followed the mini-Budget, telling MPs: “I have been very clear that I am sorry and that I have made mistakes.”

Ms Truss went on to accuse Sir Keir of having “no idea… he has no plan, and he has no alternative”.

“I am somebody who’s prepared to front up. I am prepared to take the tough decisions, unlike the honourable gentleman who hasn’t done anything on businesses, who has done nothing to say or protect people after one year. He has got no plan.”

Sir Keir insisted Labour was an “opposition in waiting” after opinion polls showed his party as many as 36 points ahead this week.

“The only mandate she’s ever had is from members opposite – it was a mandate built on fantasy economics and it ended in disaster,” he said.

Joking about a biography that is currently being written about Ms Truss, Sir Keir said: “Apparently it’s going to be out by Christmas – is that the release date or the title?”

Elsewhere, Ms Truss committed to the pensions triple-lock following initial uncertainty over whether it would be part of upcoming Government spending cuts.

But she refused to guarantee increasing benefits in line with inflation next April, or reaffirm the UK’s 0.7 per cent international aid spending target in response to questions from backbenchers.