UK's Truss refuses to rule out welfare cuts to fund economic plan - Reuters UK

BIRMINGHAM, England Oct 4 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Liz Truss triggered a new row in her party on Tuesday by suggesting she could limit increases in benefit payments to less than soaring inflation as she seeks ways to fund her tax-cutting growth plan.

Immediately lawmakers in Truss's Conservative Party - some who helped force the top tax rate reversal - opposed any move to reduce the increases in benefits at a time when millions are struggling with higher costs of food and energy.

Penny Mordaunt, who is in Truss's cabinet of senior ministers, said benefits should rise in line with inflation.

Victoria Prentis, a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, told Reuters the government had to go through the numbers before it could take a final decision on benefits.

Interior minister Suella Braverman accused sections of the party of staging "a coup effectively" over the top tax rate cut.

Another cabinet minister, Simon Clarke, said Braverman talked sense, suggesting that unity among her top cabinet team of ministers was breaking down.

"There's a difference to being a joke party and a dead party.

If we remove (Truss) this quickly, we're a joke, but are we a dead party already?" one said.

Opposition by some senior British Conservative lawmakers to the decision to abolish the top rate of income tax amounted to a "coup", interior minister Suella Braverman said on Tuesday.