Liz Truss Praises Mini Budget Plan Exposes Infestation Woes at Number 10 in New Memoir

Liz Truss Praises Mini Budget Plan Exposes Infestation Woes at Number 10 in New Memoir

Liz Truss resigned in October 2022, serving 44 days in office. Her memoir details her short tenure, including behind-the-scenes stories of domestic life as a senior government figure.

Liz Truss has revealed she considered abolishing the UK’s economic watchdog and replacing leaders at the Treasury and Bank of England, accusing the bodies of being “pro-China” and “pro-Remain.”.

The country’s shortest serving prime minister said she discussed scrapping the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) with her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng but concluded it would have “amounted to a declaration of war on the economic establishment.”.

In an extract from her memoir published by the Daily Mail, Ms. Truss says the OBR, Treasury, and Bank of England “were more interested in balancing the books than growing the economy” and saw immigration “as a way of fixing the public finances.”.

Defending her September 2022 mini-budget, which led to a surge in borrowing costs and saw the pound slump to a 37-year low against the dollar, the former prime minister said she would “accept that the communications around the mini-budget were not as good as they could have been.”.

However, she said the afternoon after Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng outlined the growth plan was “probably my happiest moment as prime minister,” adding, “I was ecstatic.”.

Mr. Kwarteng was sacked three weeks later amid rising mortgage costs, before most measures in the statement were axed in an attempt to stabilise financial markets.

The serialisation also includes behind-the-scenes details of domestic life as a senior government figure.

While foreign secretary, Ms. Truss says she was forced to share the grace-and-favorite Chevening mansion in Kent with her predecessor, Dominic Raab and would find “protein shakes labelled ‘Raab’ in the fridge”.

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The Norfolk MP is also critical of the levels of personal support offered to UK prime ministers, saying, “Despite now being one of the most photographed people in the country, I had to organise my own hair and make-up appointments.”.

She described the prime ministerial flat above the Number 10 offices as infested with fleas that some claimed came from her predecessor Boris Johnson’s dog, Dilyn.

Ms Truss also revealed she and her husband had ordered new furniture for the residence “but were evicted before it could be delivered”.

The death of the Queen is also described in the extracts, with Ms. Truss saying the fact it happened on her second full day as the prime minister left her in a “state of shock” and thinking, “Why me? Why now?”.

Just over three weeks ago, then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled his tax-cutting mini-budget to MPs, which caused economic turmoil in the UK.

Following a dramatic U-turn on a promise to abolish the 45% higher rate of income tax after backlash from the government’s own Conservative MPs earlier this month, Mr Kwarteng has now been sacked, and many of the other pledges in the mini-budget have been torn up.

On Friday, the government scrapped its decision to axe the rise in corporation tax to 25% next year.

Addressing the nation in a statement on Monday morning, newly appointed chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed that most of the other mini-budget proposals have also now been thrown in the bin as Prime Minister Liz Truss seeks to hold on to her premiership.

What has changed?

• The government rowed back on its decision to scrap the highest rate of income tax earlier this month.

• Mr Hunt said the basic rate of income tax would now “indefinitely” stay at 20p until economic conditions allowed a reduction.

“It is a deeply held Conservative value – a value that I share – that people should keep more of the money that they earn,” the new chancellor said.

“But at a time when markets are rightly demanding commitments to sustainable public finances, it is not right to borrow to fund this tax cut.”