Rishi Sunak has made his first speech as Prime Minister and said he is in Downing Street to fix the mistakes of his predecessor Liz Truss.

Speaking outside Ten Downing Street having been to see the King, Sunak said mistakes were made.

He said he wanted to “explain why I’m standing here as your new Prime Minister”.

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He is the third Prime Minister in less than two months after both Boris Johnson and Truss were forced to resign.

While he paid tribute to Johnson for his “achievements” as Prime Minister, he was clear he was only there because Truss had got it spectacularly wrong.

Sunak said: “Right now the country faces a profound economic crisis.”

While noting there was an impact from Covid and the Russian war in Ukraine, he said Truss did not deal with the problems.

Sunak said: “I admired her restlessness to create change but mistakes were made.

“Not born of ill-will or bad intention, quite the opposite in fact.

“But mistakes, nonetheless.

"I have been elected as leader of your party and Prime Minister, in part, to fix them and that will begin immediately.”

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He said he would put “economic stability” at the heart of his Government plans.

His statement could mean spending cuts or tax rises, as he said: “This will mean difficult decisions to come.”

He added: “The Government I lead will not leave the next generation with a debt to settle that we were too weak to settle ourselves.”

As calls for a General Election grow from Labour and the SNP, he appeared to rule that out stating his party had a mandate to govern.

Despite being the third Prime Minister since the last time the UK had a General Election, Sunak said “the mandate” from 2019 “is not the sole property of an individual but all of us (the Conservatives)”.

He added: “I understand how difficult this moment is.

“When the opportunity to serve comes along you can’t question the moment only your willingness.

“I stand ready. Together we can achieve incredible things.”