Elizabeth Truss, or summoned Liz Truss, as she is known in England, the Prime Minister of Great Britain anointed by Queen Elizabeth II before her death at the Scottish castle of Balmoral, then countersigned by King Charles, went from Republican troublemaker to leader of the traditional Conservative party in a decade. She went from rejecting Brexit to promoting it: she opposed the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, and later became a fervent evangelist as secretary of commerce for her predecessor Boris Johnson.
Their ideological prowess (critics call her an opportunist), propelled her to the top of British politics. Just how fit she was for the rigors of the job is on full display with her resignation. She did not put up with the disastrous economic crisis that hits the United Kingdom: to Brexit are added the aftermath of the post-pandemic and the war in Ukraine. And this comes on top of a Tory party that seems torn between a desire for a fresh start and regret at having thrown away its flamboyant predecessor.
Departure
Truss has little of the charisma that Johnson was great at displaying. Nevertheless climbed the ranks of the party with what his colleagues described as courage, drive and an appetite for disruptive politics. And when her former boss got into trouble after a series of scandals, she deftly positioned herself – without ever publicly breaking up – as a hard-line alternative.
“I was willing to take risks and say the kinds of things that other people weren’t willing to say. Sometimes that worked for her, other times it hurt her,” explained political scientist Marc Stears, who tutored her at Oxford. Hence, she was frequently compared to Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979, during a period of similar economic hardship.
A painting in front of which, Truss came with proposals: his economic priority was to reduce taxes, a move she said would revive a stagnant economy and help people with skyrocketing energy bills. Truss’s team floated the idea of reducing VAT by 5%, and cutting income tax to help family budgets.
But there was considerable skepticism on Truss’s proposals for tax cuts in response to the energy cost crisis, which benefited high earners and did nothing for those dependent on pensions or benefits.
plans
Truss’s plans have for social security and health careespecially given the crisis in the health service and the widespread expectation that things will get much worse in the winter, were non-existent.
Furthermore, his foreign policy was more of the same, given that Truss led the relationship with the EU under Johnson. Strong support for Ukraine was expected, and pressure on the French president, Emmanuel Macron, something that ended up happening and bounced off him.
Truss also marked his toughness with the Northern Ireland protocol, but with so many open fronts, the trade war in his backyard complicated it. She is now leaving after a brief stay at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
The English domestic front after the resignation is not easy. Small businesses, especially energy-intensive ones, are warning of widespread closures over the winter as they won’t be able to pay their bills.
And there is a growing number of labor strikes: Workers in all industries are demanding wage increases commensurate with the cost of living. A world drama that finds the British little tolerant after five years of sustained decline in purchasing power.
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