Liz Truss acknowledged mistakes over the mini-budget but said she is standing by her tax-cutting plan as she refused to rule out public spending cuts.

The Prime Minister admitted she could have done more to prepare the ground for Kwasi Kwarteng's financial statement, which spooked the markets, sent the pound plummeting, and forced a £65 billion intervention by the Bank of England to restore order.

Ms Truss said the mini-budget's most controversial measure - the abolition of the 45% tax rate on earnings over £150,000 - was not discussed with the Cabinet but was a decision made by the Chancellor.

As the Conservative Party conference gets under way in Birmingham, Ms Truss faces a difficult task in reassuring the markets and Tory members unnerved by the market turbulence and opinion poll crash suffered since she took office.

"I do want to say to people I understand their worries about what has happened this week," she told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.

"I do stand by the package we announced and I stand by the fact we announced it quickly, because we had to act.

"But I do accept we should have laid the ground better... I have learnt from that and I will make sure that in future we do a better job of laying the ground."

The move to axe the top rate of income tax for the nation's highest earners during a cost-of-living crisis and to pay for it through borrowing has been widely criticised, including by some Tory MPs.

During the interview, Ms Truss made Mr Kwarteng own the controversial decision, saying it was not discussed with the wider Cabinet.

"No, no, we didn't. It was a decision the Chancellor made," she said.

Liz Truss said scrapping the top rate of income tax for the nation's highest earners was a decision made by Kwasi Kwarteng rather than being agreed by the wider Cabinet.

She was clear that pensions will rise in line with inflation, saying she has "committed to the triple lock" protecting them against price increases.

But she refused to give the same guarantee for benefits and government departmental budgets.

Not ruling out rowing back on Boris Johnson's promise to raise benefit payments in line with inflation, she said: "This is something the Department of Work and Pensions Secretary (Chloe Smith) is looking at at the moment.

"She will make a determination on that and we will announce that this autumn."