Liz Truss’s comeback risks damaging the
Conservatives’ election chances and deepening splits over taxes
ANALYSIS Former prime minister is largely unrepentant
despite contributing to economic pain faced by millions
By Arj
Singh
Deputy
Political Editor
February 5,
2023 3:54 pm(Updated 4:26 pm)
It is perhaps
understandable that after 49 chaotic days in Downing Street destroyed Liz
Truss’s hard-won reputation as the Cabinet’s longest-serving minister, she
wanted a chance to tell her side of the story.
But while
conceding she was not “blameless” in sparking the market turmoil that made
mortgages more expensive for millions, the former prime minister’s 4,000-word
essay is largely unrepentant.
The Bank of
England, the Treasury, No 10, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), US
President Joe Biden, the IMF and even her own Conservative Party are all
identified as contributing to an “economic orthodoxy” that was simply not ready
for the Truss plan for growth.
Ms Truss
also fails to acknowledge that the economic carnage she presided over has
all-but-destroyed the Tories’ chance of winning the next election, with the
party’s reputation for fiscal competence lying in tatters.
While
aspects of her argument for growth may have merit as the UK stares down the
barrel of a recession, and have struck a chord with some sensible senior Tory
MPs, the nature and timing of her intervention means the woman once dubbed the
“human hand grenade” is once again causing damage to the Government and her
party.
Allies
insist that Ms Truss does not want to undermine her successor, Rishi Sunak, or
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who she actually brought into the Treasury to calm the
markets.
But the
timing of her comeback will only deepen Tory splits, which are once again
emerging over tax cuts a month ahead of the Budget.
Perhaps worse
still, it will simply remind voters of the damage the party caused to the
economy and their own finances just as Mr Sunak is stabilising the Tories’
position and beginning to demonstrate Government competence for the first time
in well over a year.
Cabinet
ministers were told at an away day last month that the Tories still have a
narrow path to victory at the next election, but Ms Truss’s presence will only
make it tighter.
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