Liz Truss has said she is a “fighter not a quitter” as she battles to save her premiership.
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, the prime minister said she was “sorry” for her mini-Budget which triggered market chaos and tanked Tory poll ratings.
Keir Starmer hammered Truss for having to watch her new chancellor Jeremy Hunt junk her entire economic plan.
“How can she be held to account when she’s not in charge?” the Labour leader said. “Why is she still here?”
Starmer read out a list of dropped economic policies, with Labour MPs behind him chanting “gone” after each one.
Truss told MPs: “I have been very clear that I am sorry and that I have made mistakes.
“I am a fighter and not a quitter. I have acted in the national interest to make sure that we have economic stability.”
The phrase drew immediate comparisons with Peter Mandelson, the former Labor cabinet minister who famously angrily shouted the same words when he retained his Commons seat in 2001.
“Before this campaign started it was said I was facing political oblivion - my career in tatters never to be part of the political living again,” he said at the time.
“Well, they underestimated me because I am a fighter... and a fighter not a quitter.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, six Tory MPs had gone public to call for Truss to quit as PM immediately.
But behind the scenes in Westminster, many more want the prime minister to resign.
During PMQs, Truss performed another U-turn by confirming the pensions triple lock would remain.
The government yesterday had notably refused to commit to standing by the 2019 Tory manifesto pledge.
The triple lock guarantees pensions rise by whatever is higher - prices, average wages or 2.5%.
Even suggesting abandoning the pledge had already added to the unhappiness on the Tory backbenchers.
Truss has also risked a fresh fight with her own MPs by making a vote on a Labour motion on fracking a test of confidence in her administration.