Liz Truss tells Tory rebels 'there is no option but to change' as she faces calls to abandon controversial tax-cutting agenda

Prime Minister Liz Truss has warned Tory rebels urging her to abandon her controversial tax cutting agenda that she will not change course, telling them “the status quo isn’t an option”.

The PM rejected calls to sack Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after the chaos caused by his mini-budget, insisting he was doing an “excellent job” despite the turmoil on the financial markets caused by his mini-budget.

She arrived in Birmingham for the start of the annual Conservative Party conference as another opinion poll showed Labour with a big lead over the Tories.

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The survey by Opinium, put Labour on 46 per cent, 19 points clear of the Conservatives on 27pc. On the issue of the economy it found that a one-point lead for the Tories a week ago had become a 19-point advantage for Labour.

It follows a tumultuous week which saw the pound slump to a record low against the dollar and the Bank of England step in to prevent the collapse of the pensions industry in the wake of Mr Kwarteng’s £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts.

With some Tory MPs speculating that she might not last the until the end of the year, Sir Keir Starmer sought to seize on the discontent in the Conservative ranks, urging rebels to work with Labour to defeat the Government’s tax plans in the Commons.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Labour leader said it was “unacceptable” that neither the country nor Parliament had had any say on the measures despite the chaos wreaked on the financial markets.

“The economy is not a laboratory experiment for the maddest scientists of the Conservative Party. Mortgages, pensions and family finances are not casino chips for a Government intoxicated by