Liz Truss allies warn her against sparking fresh
Tory civil war with imminent return to public life
The former PM is ready to return after taking a
‘breather’ – giving cause for concern that Rishi Sunak could be about to come
under greater pressure
By Richard
Vaughan, Hugo Gye
February 1,
2023 7:58 pm(Updated February 2, 2023 9:38 am)
Allies of
Liz Truss are urging her not to spark a fresh Tory civil war when she returns
to public life with calls for Rishi Sunak to back her “pro-growth” economic
agenda.
Insiders
say that having taken a “breather” after more than 10 years in ministerial
office, the former prime minister is prepared to re-enter the cut and thrust of
Westminster with the demand for fresh growth packages.
But already
the idea of Ms Truss’s shadow looming over Mr Sunak is starting to send ripples
of panic across battle-weary Conservative back benches.
The Prime
Minister is at risk of becoming sandwiched between his predecessors, with Boris
Johnson increasingly visible with a big interview due to be broadcast later
this week on the new Talk TV show hosted by arch-Sunak critic Nadine Dorries.
One
ex-Cabinet minister who remains close to South West Norfolk MP Ms Truss said
there was a danger of “factionalism” if MPs continue to speak out. “I really
want Rishi to succeed so that the party succeeds and most importantly the
country does too,” they told i.
An increase
in sightings of Ms Truss in Parliament, and news of a new Tory caucus, the
Conservative Growth Group, founded by two of her lieutenants, has given cause
for concern that Mr Sunak could be about to come under greater pressure from
his immediate predecessor.
She is
understood to be penning a lengthy opinion piece for a Sunday newspaper this
weekend, as well as doing further interviews with Tory-friendly press the
following week
Allies of
the former PM insist she is supportive of the Prime Minister, and is as eager
as many others among the Tory ranks to see more policies that deliver greater
growth.
A focus on
supply-side reforms and policies that promote growth is something Ms Truss
wants to get behind, sources close to her say.
After a
brief hiatus in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of her administration,
Truss supporters have become increasingly vocal about the direction of the
Conservatives, with the likes of former levelling-up secretary Simon Clarke
recently insisting that a “battle for the soul” of the party is now underway.
It emerged
this week that Ms Truss told counterparts in the US during a visit there in
December that she feared for the very future of conservatism in the UK.
According
to Politico’s Washington bureau, Ms Truss expressed concern in a meeting with a
member of the US Congress that the conservative movement could “disappear
entirely” in Britain.
Jake Berry,
who was party chair under the former PM and has become a staunch critic of Mr
Sunak since leaving government, also travelled to Washington, and uttered the
need for “sort of a Marshall Plan for conservatism” to breathe life back into
the Tories.
Ms Truss
travelled to Washington DC to attend the International Democrat Union forum,
having been invited to attend the centre right conference by former Canadian
leader Steven Harper. Among the speakers at the event were Republican Senator
Ted Cruz, former Tory deputy chair Lord Ashcroft, and Brandon Lewis, the Tory
MP who served as Ms Truss’s justice secretary.
According
to a source close to her, Ms Truss held a series of private talks with
centre-right politicians from around the globe – but did not intend her
comments to them to be made public.
She intends
to continue holding meetings with “fellow travellers” in other countries,
seeing the international work as an essential counterpart to her plans to push
free-market policy solutions within the UK.
“Different
countries face some of the same problems and so the same solutions will be
applicable,” a source said.
Others
within the Tory party are less pleased with the prospect that Ms Truss, with
the help of the new Conservative Growth Group, could start pushing the Sunak
government with her supply-side reform agenda in the run up to the Budget next
month.
In a sign
of how her return could go down in certain circles, former trade minister Conor
Burns branded her premiership as “toxic”.
He told
LBC: “I think the first thing to say is that lower taxes are in the
Conservative Party’s DNA, but so is fiscal responsibility. And we must not
understate the severe damage that was done to the Conservative Party’s brand by
those 44 toxic days last autumn, and the Chancellor is right to be setting out
a stable foundation to get the economy stabilised and growing.
“And then
of course, we must move back into the tax cutting space when it is responsible
to do so.”
Nevertheless,
veterans of the Truss administration continue to defend the policies it
announced even if they admit that their timing and execution were botched.
One problem
was that during the mourning period for the Queen, ministers were effectively
unable to contact No 10 to discuss their policy plans. Another major issue was
“discipline”, a former Cabinet minister said: “Colleagues felt able to break
the official line on policies so we couldn’t just get on with it behind the
scenes until it was ready”.
Such plans
continue to be worked on on the sidelines by the Conservative Growth Group,
however, and it is now meeting weekly. Truss’s allies insist she is not
formally linked to the caucus despite suggestions that she came up with the
name and attended its launch party last month.
The dire
economic forecasts from the IMF this week prompted a flurry of early ideas from
the group, including public sector “quick fixes”, such as reforming the
doctors’ pensions trap to improve the NHS and overhauling childcare to get more
people into work.
More formal
policy papers are likely to emerge from the group in the run up to the Budget
on 15 March, when it is also expected that there will be greater public
interventions from Ms Truss, who has yet to speak in the Commons since she left
Downing Street in October.
As those
close to her told i: “Watch this space.”
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