Liz Truss says she doesn’t ‘regret’ her time as Prime Minister
Liz Truss has admitted she might have gone a ‘step too far’ in her attempts to bring Britain’s economy under control.
In her first broadcast interview since being ousted from No 10, the former Tory leader said she didn’t ‘regret’ the experience.
But when asked if she’d ever want to become Prime Minister again, she gave a firm and fast ‘no’.
Ms Truss told the Spectator: ‘I definitely want to be part of promoting a pro-growth agenda. I definitely want to carry on as an MP.
‘I’m positive about the future of Britain and I’m positive about the future of the Conservative party. I think we need to start building more of a strong intellectual base.
‘But I’m not desperate to get back into Number 10, no.’
During the interview, Ms Truss was forced to address the series of unfortunate events that led to her downfall.
The shortest-serving prime minister in British history was ultimately outlasted by a lettuce after her £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts panicked the markets and tanked the pound.
In her interview with the Spectator, Ms Truss said scrapping the 45p tax rate was perhaps ‘a bridge too far’ but that ‘we all think different things with hindsight’.
The South West Norfolk MP then moved on to firing Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of their mini-budget chaos.
She defended the move, saying: ‘I was getting some very serious warnings from senior officials that there could be a potential market meltdown the following week if I didn’t take action. I weighed it up in my mind about whether I needed to do that.
‘But the reality was I couldn’t, in all conscience, risk that situation.’
The Spectator’s Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson then suggested Mr Kwarteng had simply been doing as Ms Truss asked.
The former PM responded: ‘Well yes, and I think that was probably the case. Obviously, looking back, from where we’re sitting now, I can see that.
‘At the time, I was just thinking: “How do I make sure there’s not a market meltdown?”
‘So I wasn’t really focused on my long-term future…. I count Kwasi as a friend and what happened: it was a difficult decision. Was it the right decision? It’s very hard to tell.’
In her first print interview since stepping down as PM, Ms Truss took to a 4,000-word piece for the Telegraph to say she was ‘not claiming to be blameless’.
Ms Truss said her 49 days in office had been personally ‘bruising’, but she still believes her policies would have increased growth and brought down debt.
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