Liam O'Dell
Apr 16, 2024
ITV/Peston
In case you arenât aware (letâs be honest, you probably are), Liz Truss has a book out this week, titled Ten Years to Save the West, and itâs supposedly about tackling âdisastrous ideasâ in Western politics among other things â and we assume she wonât be considering her catastrophic mini-Budget to be one of them.
And in the run-up to the bookâs publication on Tuesday, the shortest-serving prime minister has been handing excerpts to the Daily Mail to publish, and is continuing to double down on the idea that her time as PM was brought to an abrupt end by the establishment.
Appearing on LBC with Iain Dale on Monday, Truss was asked about whether people âblaming everything thatâs wrong in our economyâ on her mini-Budget angers her, to which she said: âItâs a smear ⦠When I meet people, quite often, out canvassing or out on the street, people will say âyou did the right thingâ.
âThe left ⦠are trying to smear me with economic results Iâm clearly not responsible for.â
Meanwhile, in a tweet promoting a new Mail article on her book earlier that day, she said the extract explains âwhy I had to go and what my experience has taught me about taking on the establishmentâ.
To save you from having to read the lengthy extracts, the answer according to Truss concerns Suella Bravermanâs breach of the Ministerial Code (over which she left her role as home secretary) and a Labour vote on fracking which ended up being framed as a âconfidence motionâ.
The South West Norfolk MP writes: âIt soon emerged thereâd been angry scenes during the vote, with our whips openly arguing with MPs and tempers running high.
âI then heard that the Chief Whip Wendy Morton and her deputy had both resigned, saying they were unable to put up with the abuse they were getting. This wasnât a huge surprise. Right from the outset, theyâd faced quite appalling behaviour from some of our own MPs, who made their life hell.â
She went on to add that their resignation was âthe last thing I neededâ, and that their decision âwould only increase the likelihood of the house of cards falling downâ.
âSo I spoke to Wendy and Craig in my office and urged them to retract their resignations. They were very emotional, and I eventually persuaded them.
âI then headed over to the Whipsâ office and found it in utter chaos. All around the Commons, I also saw looks of despair on the faces of colleagues. Thatâs when I thought: this is done. This is terminal.
âBy that time, I had decided that my only option was to resign.
âI had already done what was needed to avoid an economic meltdown, but the political meltdown of the Conservative Party now appeared unstoppable.â
So there you have it. Spoilers. Sorry (not really).
Although we wouldnât be the only one to have killed any level of hype around Trussâs book, as Labour MP Jess Phillips responded to a tweet from the ex-PM promoting the Mail extracts about her âfinal days in Downing Streetâ by saying they are âalso known as her initial days in Downing Streetâ.
Ouch.
And Twitter/X users loved the political put-down:
Phillips, obviously, isnât the only one to make a brutal dig at Trussâs short tenure, as âvery right-wingâ comedian Joe Lycett displayed a commemorative plate for her premiership at an art exhibition late last year.
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