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Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has regained her voice after spending nearly a year in the political wilderness following her dramatic exit from Downing Street.
Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister made his most significant intervention yet on Monday over his disastrous so-called mini-budget, which sent markets into chaos last September.
she Speech by the Institute of Government Following speeches in Tokyo, Washington, Taipei and Copenhagen, she has chosen a venue for her major public appearance outside the British Parliament for the first time this year.
But the enthusiasm with which she addressed her domestic audience and asked her successor, Rishi Sunak, to cut taxes, rein in welfare budgets and raise the retirement age was not matched by the reaction to her speech from many quarters in the party.
Conservative MP and former minister Connor Burns said on social media that “the only service she has to offer is continued silence”, calling Truss a “drag anchor on any cause she pursues” and a “doorstep” poison”.
Rupert Harrison, the Tory parliamentary candidate and chief of staff to former chancellor George Osborne, has spoken out publicly what others in the party have said privately when slamming her “sheer copper neck”. . . Advising Sunak.”
Harrison criticized Truss for failing to admit the “real mistakes” she made while in office, adding on
Although her invited speech was attended by a group of high-profile figures from the party’s right wing, including former Brexit secretary Lord David Frost and former Leave campaign chief executive Matthew Elliott, No. 10 No. 1 can take comfort from the fact that not a single Conservative MP is among them.
However, Truss appears not to have been deterred from joining the fray by a lack of parliamentary support at the event.
“I will be speaking at the conference,” she told the Financial Times after her speech, confirming her intention to attend next month’s annual gathering of the Conservative faithful and potentially cause a stir.
She is also writing a book about safeguarding economic and cultural freedom in the West, due out in April, a further sign that she will continue to seek to contribute to political debate.
The prospect is likely to make Sunak and his aides cringe, as Truss said in her speech that the so-called “anti-growth coalition” she has long opposed now includes parts of the Conservative parliamentary party.
She also took aim at Sunak’s net-zero pledge, declaring that the Conservatives “have nothing to fear from climate change activists, Extinction Rebellion and anti-capitalists”.
Truss admitted she had been “rushed” to implement her economic plans during her time in Downing Street, but she stuck to her policies, lashing out at economists and arguing that “institutional bureaucracy” was the reason her plans failed.
Although her speech provoked strong reactions from some colleagues, she still has the support of a small but loyal group of MPs on the Tory right.
Former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said Truss was “right” to make the economic growth argument publicly and agreed with her analysis that “the government spends too much and taxes too much”.
He added that he shared her skepticism about the government’s net zero pledge. “We have to consider what these people can afford. I want a (green) surcharge on electricity bills first,” he told the Financial Times.
Truss’s ability to galvanize sections of the party to speak out on tax and the green agenda is just part of the questions she poses to Sunak; another is her willingness to confront the economic establishment over its doomed economic strategy Fight.
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney told a Montreal summit on Monday that the Truss government, far from realizing the Brexiteers’ dream of turning the UK into “Singapore on the Thames”, had instead put “Argentina on the English Channel” , after which she traded accusations with former Bank of England governor Mark Carney. ”.
Truss countered: “Mark Carney is part of the 25-year economic consensus that has led to low growth in the Western world.” She accused him of recriminating to avoid blame for Britain’s historically slow economic growth.
Truss also claimed in her speech that the Office for Budget Responsibility leaked estimates of a £70bn shortfall in the public finances on October 7 last year, which she claimed led to the failure of her “mini” budget.
The fiscal watchdog rejected her claims and issued a statement saying Truss was “incorrect”.
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