Liz Truss breaks silence and blames British establishment for her political failure

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Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss made the first formal comments on Sunday (5) about her fleeting and failed visit to Downing Street. In an article published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the politician blamed the economic orthodoxy, according to her dominant in her Conservative Party, in the United Kingdom and in the West, for preventing her from implementing a growth plan.

Truss was nominated by the legend to succeed the troubled Boris Johnson, who resigned amid an escalating series of scandals. But her tenure would prove even more chaotic: in just over 40 days, she saw Queen Elizabeth II die, paralyzing the country, but notably the economy crumbling, largely due to a project presented by her that undermined market confidence. in the country.

Faced with criticism of the plan that provided for tax cuts and a mini-budget without forecasting sources of investment, the cost of living soared, the pound price collapsed and she was forced to resign as well, giving way to the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to whom he had defeated in the internal election. Sunak already has more than twice as many days in office as her predecessor – even if she has not been able to fully restore British stability.

In this Sunday’s text, Truss says that he believed that the recipe she proposed was the most correct, but that his government “underestimated a bubble of already established interests” and economic orthodoxy.

“I do not say that I am innocent of what happened, but I fundamentally did not have a realistic opportunity to implement my policies, due to the action of a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support,” the policy wrote.

“I took over Downing Street [endereço da residência oficial dos premiês britânicos] believing that my mandate would be respected and accepted. How wrong I was. Even though I knew the system would be resistant to my program, I underestimated its power.”

In office, it is worth remembering, she even apologized for what she defined as mistakes. “I take responsibility. I wanted to act to help people with their energy bills and to deal with the issue of high taxes, but we went too far too fast,” she said, days before resigning.

Truss also points to co-religionists and allies, saying that Conservative Party parliamentarians showed opposition to the changes proposed by her, “for an economy with fewer taxes and regulations” and a global scenario that “limited competition” between great powers. Indeed, the party itself began to defend its departure in the midst of the government’s popularity crisis.

“As I argued in the campaign, I wanted to pursue growth. But that clashed with Treasury’s instinctive views and the orthodox ecosystem.”

She had, in her brief term, two holders for Finance: Kwasi Kwarteng, who would become a scapegoat when he was fired at the height of the political storm, and Jeremy Hunt, who reversed practically the entire Truss program while she was still in power and ended up kept in the post by Sunak.

The politician even called, in the article for the Sunday Telegraph, some of the economic measures of his successor harmful. The prime minister has already received warnings from entities such as the International Monetary Fund —which also attacked the Truss administration— about the UK’s economic forecasts.

Sunak is still facing a wave of strikes and to some degree the same instability in the party. The current Minister of Business, Grant Shapps, said this Sunday that everyone wants lower taxes, but that the government needs to prioritize now the reduction of the deficit and inflation to resume growth.

The opposition has already used Truss’ text to again criticize political rivals, calling for a change in the UK’s course. “The Conservatives have destroyed the economy, brought down the pound, threatened the pension system and made the working class pay the price,” said Rachel Reeves, the Labor Party’s economics officer.

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