LONDON — Liz Truss has broken cover to lash out at the “powerful economic establishment” which she says led to the abrupt end to her short premiership last year.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the ex-British prime minister said she stood by the policy prescription on which she fought for the Conservative leadership, but claimed the “forces against it were too great” to carry it through.
Truss resigned as British prime minister after a turbulent 45 days in office during which her so-called “mini-budget” crashed the markets and she lost two key ministers.
She, and her then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, announced the biggest U.K. tax cuts since 1972, funded by a vast expansion in borrowing, and with little attempt to explain how it could be paid for.
“I am not claiming to be blameless in what happened, but fundamentally I was not given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support,” she wrote.
“Pessimism and skepticism” about the growth potential of the British economy were endemic at the Treasury, she claimed. She also said deregulation of financial services and other industries “was viewed as undermining the prospects of a deal with the EU” on the Northern Ireland protocol and that Brexit was “seen as a damage-limitation exercise rather than a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
