“We’ve got the Environment Agency, we’ve got the Office of Budget Responsibility, we’ve got the Bank of England, we’ve got the Judicial Appointments Commission.” She added “we have a major problem with our administrative bureaucracy” that has “got a lot worse.”
“Now people are joining the Civil Service who are essentially activists, they might be trans activists, they might be environmental extremists, but they are now having a voice within the Civil Service in a way I don’t think was true 30 or 40 years ago, so we just have a wholly new problem,” she said.
Needless to say, real activists fighting and campaigning for the safety and dignity of trans people weren’t impressed with Truss’ comments.
“We all know Truss is detached from reality – to sink the economy and already be trying to stage a political comeback of any kind speaks for itself – and this is just further evidence of that,” said trans advocate and journalist Freddy McConnell.
“Saying that, she probably has just enough political sense to know that saying this to the UK media would go down like a lead balloon. But if far-right MAGA lunatics are the allies you’re going for, I imagine blaming your own incompetence on some deep-state trans mafia makes a cynical sort of sense.”
Liz Truss spent just 49 days in office. During this time, she tanked the economy, obtaining a record-low approval rating of 14%.
Her ‘mini budget’ contained the most severe raft of tax cuts for half a century, slashing tax by £45bn per year – predominantly in the top tax bracket. She also axed a cap on bankers’ bonuses.
The results were disastrous. Inflation surged 10.6%, and government borrowing costs spiked dramatically. Thousands of mortgage offers disappeared from the market, as spooked lenders withdrew 40% of available products.
Mounting public fury destroyed what little credibility she had left. Under pressure from Labour and fellow Conservative MPs, she resigned in disgrace in October 2022.
Suffice to say, her claims that the “establishment“ derailed her leadership have not been well received.
“As funny as it is watching Liz Truss fall off the deep end of conspiracy theory, it is deeply concerning that a senior UK politician can make these kinds of claims and be taken seriously,” said Alex Charilaou, the co-chair of the Labour for Trans Rights group.
“Claims like these do make the climate for trans people in this country and across the world worse – it’s scary enough to be trans in the UK right now without a former prime minister making up false crackpot theories about our long march through the Civil Service.”
Cleo Madeleine, from trans-led grassroots organisation Gendered Intelligence, echoed this concern about the impact on trans people.
“We’ve seen consecutive prime ministers and senior government officials use trans people and trans issues as a distraction from political and economic failures,” she said.
“Liz Truss is the icing on the cake; it’s a typical example of using trans people as a political football.“
Environmental campaigners were similarly unimpressed.
Extinction Rebellion pointed out that Liz Truss’ “nature-trashing” program attracted direct criticism from “mild-mannered environmental charities like the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and National Trust.”
“These culture war tactics are a dead end. The climate and nature emergencies are not interested whether you are on the right or the left of the political spectrim. The science is clear and each and every one of us will be impacted,” a spokesperson said.
“The extremists are the politicians who are failing to take urgent action and who are locking us into the worst climate change scenarios by licensing new oil, gas and coal projects.”
