Liz Truss blames the ‘deep state’ and the ‘establishment’ for her downfall. Here’s why she’s wrong

The revolution, the saying goes, will not be televised. But for fans of Liz Truss, it’s available in all major bookshops for £16.99.

The former prime minister – who was ousted after just 49 days in office – has published a new memoir extolling the virtues Donald Trump, hinting at future political aspirations and detailing the financial disaster that torpedoed her premiership.

In Ten Years to Save The West: Lessons from the only conservative in the room, the one-time leader pledges to “lead the Revolution Against Globalism, Socialism and the Liberal Establishment.”

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Over 320 pages, Truss rails against fleas, the “virtue-signalling” COP26 summit, the deep state, the Biden administration and the difficulty of ordering Ocado to 10 Downing Street.

But the main theme is her distrust of the ‘economic establishment.’ So what do experts think of her assessment – and will Truss be back?

Did the economic establishment torpedo Liz Truss?

When Liz Truss turned her back on Downing Street – memorably outlasted by a lettuce – she did not, it seems, look inward.

“The people who claim I crashed the economy are either very stupid or very malevolent”, she told the Telegraph.

After Truss launched her disastrous tax-slashing budget, the markets crashed. According to the book, the permanent secretary to the Treasury predicted further market chaos – a warning Truss interpreted as an ultimatum.

“I knew they [the Treasury, the Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility] had me at gunpoint,” she opines. Truss wanted to sack the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, during her time as PM, but didn’t, lest it be interpreted as a “declaration of war.”

Shortly after Truss announced her mini-budget, the OBR published a statement claiming that her plans left a £72bn gap in the public finances. The watchdog later conceded that they had overstated the estimate by £28.4bn, leading Truss to describe the initial estimate as “revenge.”

David Jeffery, a senior lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool, questioned this idea that the establishment was ‘out to get’ Truss.

“The real issue is that it was the market reaction to her policies – which she sprung on it, eschewing traditional and established methods of pre-announcement scrutiny – which caused the crisis that led to her downfall,” he said.

“It is hard to square the free-market ideology Truss claims to hold with her inability to accept responsibility for the market reaction she causes.”

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London, was similarly sceptical.

“The idea that there is some kind of homogenous ‘economic establishment’ is, frankly, bizarre – let alone the idea that it was somehow out to get her,” he said.

“The only thing she can fairly claim to have been a victim of were the markets that she herself claims to revere – and that’s more of a delicious irony than some kind of conspiracy.”

Truss lashed out at US president Joe Biden for joining a “pile-on” against her plans, and claims she was “ambushed” by unsympathetic colleagues.

But political psychodrama is not the driving factor behind the mini budget’s failings, experts warned.  

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, described the “Liz Truss ‘discourse’” as “criminally indulgent.”

“Governing isn’t a game or political show. A key reason democracies have tended to have faster economic growth is economic accountability; leaders that do a bad economic job pay the (political) price.”

Will Liz Truss be back?

Speaking to Iain Dale on LBC, Truss said she won’t rule out returning as leader, citing “unfinished business.”

This is unlikely, says James Heale, the co-author of Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss. But Truss’ ideas may yet influence the direction of the Conservative Party.

“I don’t think she will be a contender for leadership, let’s put it like that. It’s telling that the Labour Party are keener to talk about Truss than the Conservative Party.”

“I think her goal is more to be a Barry Goldwater figure, a sort of prophet of things to come, a John the Baptist type.”

“This book is about setting out her stall, making her case, defending her track record, advocating what she thinks needs to change.”

Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 presidential election, but laid the foundation for a conservative realignment in the Republican Party. Truss is clearly using American language and angling for an American audience, Heale added – Donald Trump is mentioned dozens of times in her book, and Truss has already given five speeches in America over the past 12 months.

“A section of the party will listen [to her ideas]. And I suspect that an even larger section of the party would be sympathetic to Trussism without Truss,” said Heale. “That’s the key question really: how much will it extend beyond one person to being a widely accepted school of thought within the party?”

Professor Jeffrey is sceptical about the appetite for Truss’ brand of conservatism.

“Trussonomics runs contrary to the economic platform outlined in the 2019 manifesto and which delivered the Conservatives their majority – free market policies are not electorally popular in the UK in 2024,” he said.

“While there might be some support for free market policies within the party and among the party’s MPs, the Truss era/error has tarnished the reputation of this wing of the party.”

Nonetheless, the party should certainly learn “lessons” from Truss’ tenure and subsequent memoir, Heale said.

“For the Conservative Party’s sake, they will be hoping they absorb the right ones from what she got wrong,” he added.

On a lighter note – Downing Street is full of fleas

For the humble reader, there are lessons too: such as the difficulty of ordering Ocado to Downing Street. The supermarket had to be convinced the address on her order “wasn’t a hoax”.

Truss was no fan of the prime ministerial residence, describing it as isolating, soulless, and full of pests – and she wasn’t referring to her political rivals.

“The place was infested with fleas,” she wrote. “Some claimed that this was down to Boris and Carrie’s dog Dilyn, but there was no conclusive evidence. In any case, the entire place had to be sprayed with flea killer. I spent several weeks itching.”