Liz Truss is being told to “come out of hiding” after three days of silence over the turmoil in the financial markets triggered by the tax-slashing budget.
Opposition parties and the TUC demanded to know why the prime minister has “disappeared” – when the government’s “reckless actions” had caused the crisis.
“We’ve now heard from the Bank of England but nothing at all from the prime minister,” said the Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey.
“Liz Truss has 24 hours to fix this economic disaster and prevent people losing their homes,” he said, calling on her to “reassure not just the financial markets, but also British homeowners”.
Keith Brown, deputy leader of the Scottish National Party, said: “As the pound continues to plummet, Britain’s hopeless prime minister seems to have disappeared without trace.
“It is astounding that Liz Truss has not made a single public appearance or statement since last Friday. It is time for her to come out of hiding and at least make the pretence of leading the country through this self-inflicted crisis.”
One former Conservative minister also expressed surprise at the prime minister’s failure to make any comment since the markets opened on Monday, describing it as “odd”.
Labour turned its focus on Kwasi Kwarteng, as it warned people are “deeply worried about the cost of their mortgage, about their pensions, and about the impact this will have on their cost of living”.
“The chancellor must make an urgent statement on how he is going to fix the crisis that he has made,” said Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor.
And Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s general secretary, said: “Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng must come out of hiding and reverse their disastrous mini budget.”
As anger grows among Tory MPs, one accused his own government of “inept madness” and predicted a U-turn, saying it “cannot go on”
Simon Hoare likened the crisis to the one that struck John Major’s government in 1992, tweeting sarcastically: “In the words of Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday: “today has been a very difficult day”.
“These are not circumstances beyond the control of Govt/Treasury . They were authored there. This inept madness cannot go on.”
The criticism came after the Bank of England launched an emergency bond-buying programme to prevent borrowing costs from spiralling out of control, warning of a “material risk to UK financial stability”.
The extraordinary intervention came after the pound hit an all-time record low of 1.03 against the US dollar on Monday.
Meanwhile, the interest rate demanded by investors on 10-year public borrowing has soared by the greatest amount in a five-day period since 1976, according to experts.
