Latest news with #Truss
Spectator
7 days ago
- Business
- Spectator
Reform is right to reject Liz Truss
Reform UK topping the opinion polls and winning local council elections has prompted several leading Tories to defect. But now Nigel Farage's insurgent party is riding so high that it is getting choosy about which Conservatives it will accept into its swelling ranks. If too many Tories join Reform they will begin to look like a convenient vehicle for rats leaving the sinking Tory ship Sources in the party have told the Mail on Sunday that it would spurn any attempt to defect by former Prime Minister Liz Truss or former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, as both are so unpopular that they would 'damage Reform's public image'. Reform leader Nigel Farage confirmed that any approach by the two women would cause a heated debate in his party over the wisdom of admitting them. Truss became prime minister in September 2022 after being chosen by Tory party members over Rishi Sunak, following the resignation of Boris Johnson. But she was forced to quit herself after just 45 days in No. 10 when world markets reacted negatively to a tax cutting and borrowing budget from her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, causing financial chaos. She was speedily replaced by Sunak. Truss lost her Norfolk seat in the Tory rout in last year's general election, but Braverman is still MP for Fareham in Hampshire. Both have been considered possible future recruits for Reform, especially after Braverman's businessman husband Rael joined the insurgent party in December. It is a measure of Reform's current confidence – or arrogance – that it feels able to reject such senior figures should they contemplate crossing the floor. Last week, it was revealed that former Tory party chairman Sir Jake Berry and former Welsh Secretary Sir David Jones had quit the Tories and joined Reform, becoming the fourth and fifth former MPs to have done so since the election. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch reacted angrily to the defections by saying that the pair had never been real Conservatives anyway. Reform has been topping the opinion polls for months, pushing the Tories into a humiliating third place behind Labour. And the party is winning real elections too. They took control of ten local authorities in May, and in the ten council by-elections held last week, Reform won four and came second in another five. But the spate of Tory defections carries a danger for the populist party: if too many Tories join them they will begin to look like the old Conservatives dressed in new clothes, and become a convenient vehicle for rats leaving the sinking Tory ship who are seeking an easy way of rejoining the Westminster gravy train. Reform's entire USP is that they are not Tories or Labour. They may be untried and untested, but they claim to offer a real alternative to the two old parties who have failed Britain so dismally in government. While recruiting seasoned professional politicians like Berry and Jones adds welcome weight and experience to the party, it also risks tainting Reform with the failures of the past. Critics of Sir Jake's defection, for example, pointed out that as a stalwart Remainer during the Brexit referendum and a staunch supporter of net-zero policies, he was hardly a natural fit for the Brexiteer populists he has joined. Berry's old colleagues accuse him of unprincipled opportunism in signing up to Reform. Nigel Farage's successful strategy has been to target Labour leaning working-class voters in the red wall areas of the north, Midlands and Wales, so he must be very careful not to alienate such people by looking like the Tories who they have so firmly rejected. Disillusioned voters are looking for a real fresh and new alternative – not old wine in new bottles.
Spectator
07-07-2025
- Business
- Spectator
The ghost of Liz Truss haunts parliament
Today's Urgent Question in the House of Commons about the state of the economy was dominated by two people who weren't there: Liz Truss and Rachel Reeves. One wouldn't expect Truss to be present; after all she lost her seat last year and is presumably busy on some important project elsewhere. Perhaps working on her list of 'people who destroyed me' – always just missing the most important name on it. Truss is constantly invoked by Labour and today was no different. This is presumably in a crude attempt at subliminal messaging to get the public to remember how much they hated the Tories. The problem is that Sir Keir is now even less popular than Truss was at her nadir. Labour are fast running out of people they can invoke who are more hated than they are; unless they can somehow blame the spending review on Harold Shipman or the Chagos deal on Ebola. Truss wasn't there to defend herself, but you might reasonably expect the Chancellor of the Exchequer to pitch up for the briefest of chinwags about the economy. Not so. Since last week's disastrous PMQs, the Chancellor has kept a low profile. Instead we were treated to Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Jones has the demeanour of a deputy head prefect who really enjoys the punishment side of the job. He is thought of by some in Labour as one of their brains. This has gone to his head: there were members of the pre-Revolutionary Bourbon monarchy who look like models of humility compared to Mr Jones. Dame Harriet Baldwin asked the Chief Secretary about the presence of the Chancellor. After all it was her mental and physical state, Dame Harriet pointed out, which had spooked the bond markets; surely she needed to be present to calm those fears? Cue more sneering from Jones: 'she seems to have learnt lessons from her party's time in government… perhaps she could share them with her colleagues on the front bench.' She was followed by Dr Jeevun Sandher who is fast running away with the title of most embarrassing MP of this Parliament. With the delivery of a soon-to-be-disgraced Blue Peter presenter c.1980 and the rhetorical clout of a sea anemone, Dr Sandher's excruciatingly zippy non-questions now elicit a physical response in the chamber. MPs on his own side pre-emptively squirm as he rises from his seat, members of the public gallery utter silent prayers for the earth to swallow them up when he opens his lips, as he begins to speak even the mice that dwell beneath the green benches commit seppuku. Dr Sander's standard format is a lame joke married to an attempt to show how achingly right-on he is, rounded off with a non-question designed to show his utility as lobby spam to whips who rate loyalty above all else. Today's offering went thus: 'I can't believe the party opposite is asking a question about fiscal rules. Guys – and it is all guys – come on!' Not a single spine remained unshivered. Mel Stride just stared at him with a look that teetered three ways between pity, contempt and despair. Other embarrassing Labour toadies invoked Ms Truss again and again. Kanishka Narayan managed to bungle the 'In Liz we Truss' gag which he had clearly been practicing in front of the bathroom mirror for weeks. Similarly car-crash-like was David Pinto Duschinsky, who accused the Shadow Chancellor of being like 'an arsonist complaining about the fire brigade' because he had served in previous Tory governments. In this analogy the fire brigade were presumably Labour: if they have firemen of the quality of Mr Pinto-Duschinsky on the job then we shouldn't be surprised if they try to put the blaze out using petrol. Jas Athwal read out a toadying non-question from his iPhone. Yet amid these horrors, by far the worst person to watch was the Chief Secretary himself. Every answer was shamelessly predictable, his delivery sneering and arrogant. Obviously no answers were given, and we came no closer to finding out more about the government's economic plans than had Sir Mel given the time intended for his question over to reading out his shopping list or singing the theme tune to Grandstand. One thing we did learn though was this – that miracles can happen. I didn't think anything would make people yearn for the return of Rachel Reeves to public scrutiny after the Crying Incident: but forty minutes of Darren Jones did just that.
North Wales Chronicle
04-07-2025
- Politics
- North Wales Chronicle
Ex-deputy PM Therese Coffey claims civil servants advised her to break the law
Lady Coffey, who also held several other cabinet positions, including work and pensions secretary, health secretary and environment secretary, became a Conservative peer earlier this year. She told the House of Lords on Friday: 'There were several occasions when I was advised by civil servants to knowingly break the law. 'Now, they may have only been minor infringements, but I challenge about how is that possible under the Civil Service Code that, in your advice and in your inaction, you are advising me to knowingly break the law? And I wasn't prepared to do it.' Lady Coffey went on to recall another situation when she felt the Civil Service Code was not adhered to. She said: 'I learned that my shadow secretary of state had written to me on Twitter, and I knew it because he also published my response to him on Twitter. 'I'd never seen the letter from the shadow secretary of state. I had never seen the letter written in my name, but there it was: my response and my signature. 'And these sorts of things, unfortunately, in the Civil Service Code should be more serious than it was.' The Tory peer added: 'Sometimes people try and suggest it's just politicians trying to do this, that and the other. 'I'm not accusing the Civil Service, but their job is to try and manage and, ultimately, I could go on about another legal case where I was named as the defendant. 'I didn't know until a ruling had come against me, formally. 'These things, I'm afraid, do happen.' Her comments came as peers debated a report from the Constitution Select Committee entitled Executive Oversight And Responsibility For The UK Constitution. Lady Coffey was deputy prime minister in the Liz Truss government in September and October of 2022. After her brief premiership, Ms Truss took swipes at the Civil Service and blamed the so-called deep state for 'sabotaging' her. Speaking at a conference in the US in 2024, the former prime minister said: 'I wanted to cut taxes, reduce the administrative state, take back control as people talked about in the Brexit referendum. 'What I did face was a huge establishment backlash and a lot of it actually came from the state itself.' Ms Truss added: 'Now people are joining the Civil Service who are essentially activists. 'They might be trans activists, they might be environmental extremists, but they are now having a voice within the Civil Service in a way I don't think was true 30 or 40 years ago.'
Leader Live
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Leader Live
Ex-deputy PM Therese Coffey claims civil servants advised her to break the law
Lady Coffey, who also held several other cabinet positions, including work and pensions secretary, health secretary and environment secretary, became a Conservative peer earlier this year. She told the House of Lords on Friday: 'There were several occasions when I was advised by civil servants to knowingly break the law. 'Now, they may have only been minor infringements, but I challenge about how is that possible under the Civil Service Code that, in your advice and in your inaction, you are advising me to knowingly break the law? And I wasn't prepared to do it.' Lady Coffey went on to recall another situation when she felt the Civil Service Code was not adhered to. She said: 'I learned that my shadow secretary of state had written to me on Twitter, and I knew it because he also published my response to him on Twitter. 'I'd never seen the letter from the shadow secretary of state. I had never seen the letter written in my name, but there it was: my response and my signature. 'And these sorts of things, unfortunately, in the Civil Service Code should be more serious than it was.' The Tory peer added: 'Sometimes people try and suggest it's just politicians trying to do this, that and the other. 'I'm not accusing the Civil Service, but their job is to try and manage and, ultimately, I could go on about another legal case where I was named as the defendant. 'I didn't know until a ruling had come against me, formally. 'These things, I'm afraid, do happen.' Her comments came as peers debated a report from the Constitution Select Committee entitled Executive Oversight And Responsibility For The UK Constitution. Lady Coffey was deputy prime minister in the Liz Truss government in September and October of 2022. After her brief premiership, Ms Truss took swipes at the Civil Service and blamed the so-called deep state for 'sabotaging' her. Speaking at a conference in the US in 2024, the former prime minister said: 'I wanted to cut taxes, reduce the administrative state, take back control as people talked about in the Brexit referendum. 'What I did face was a huge establishment backlash and a lot of it actually came from the state itself.' Ms Truss added: 'Now people are joining the Civil Service who are essentially activists. 'They might be trans activists, they might be environmental extremists, but they are now having a voice within the Civil Service in a way I don't think was true 30 or 40 years ago.'
South Wales Guardian
04-07-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Guardian
Ex-deputy PM Therese Coffey claims civil servants advised her to break the law
Lady Coffey, who also held several other cabinet positions, including work and pensions secretary, health secretary and environment secretary, became a Conservative peer earlier this year. She told the House of Lords on Friday: 'There were several occasions when I was advised by civil servants to knowingly break the law. 'Now, they may have only been minor infringements, but I challenge about how is that possible under the Civil Service Code that, in your advice and in your inaction, you are advising me to knowingly break the law? And I wasn't prepared to do it.' Lady Coffey went on to recall another situation when she felt the Civil Service Code was not adhered to. She said: 'I learned that my shadow secretary of state had written to me on Twitter, and I knew it because he also published my response to him on Twitter. 'I'd never seen the letter from the shadow secretary of state. I had never seen the letter written in my name, but there it was: my response and my signature. 'And these sorts of things, unfortunately, in the Civil Service Code should be more serious than it was.' The Tory peer added: 'Sometimes people try and suggest it's just politicians trying to do this, that and the other. 'I'm not accusing the Civil Service, but their job is to try and manage and, ultimately, I could go on about another legal case where I was named as the defendant. 'I didn't know until a ruling had come against me, formally. 'These things, I'm afraid, do happen.' Her comments came as peers debated a report from the Constitution Select Committee entitled Executive Oversight And Responsibility For The UK Constitution. Lady Coffey was deputy prime minister in the Liz Truss government in September and October of 2022. After her brief premiership, Ms Truss took swipes at the Civil Service and blamed the so-called deep state for 'sabotaging' her. Speaking at a conference in the US in 2024, the former prime minister said: 'I wanted to cut taxes, reduce the administrative state, take back control as people talked about in the Brexit referendum. 'What I did face was a huge establishment backlash and a lot of it actually came from the state itself.' Ms Truss added: 'Now people are joining the Civil Service who are essentially activists. 'They might be trans activists, they might be environmental extremists, but they are now having a voice within the Civil Service in a way I don't think was true 30 or 40 years ago.'
