Truss wanted to be a new Thatcher - instead she was sacked in record speed

Wolfgang Hansson

 

Published: Today 15.36 

 

Updated: Today 16.54 

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's. 

 

COLUMNISTS 

 

Liz Truss has set a difficult record. 

 

She is the British Prime Minister who has been in power for the shortest time. 

 

The previous record was set in 1827 when fellow party member George Canning died in post after just 119 days. 

 

Truss turned 45 days old on the post. 

 

After Boris Johnson's stormy and scandal-ridden time in 10 Downing Street, one thing felt certain about his successor. The situation would be much calmer. 

 

But Liz Truss has shocked everyone by clattering into her crucial first time as captain of the British schooner in an almost improbable way. 

 

She was bursting with confidence, not to say hubris, when she took off at the post on September 9. 

 

Her political program consisted of implementing gigantic tax cuts, especially for the rich and for companies, while at the same time she greatly increased government spending, among other things with extensive electricity price support for British consumers. Without presenting any funding for his reforms.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP 

Liz Truss' explanation was that the tax cuts would miraculously stimulate British growth, create loads of jobs and make prosperity flow like milk and honey across the country. A kind of copy of the neoliberal policies that Margaret Thatcher introduced with some success in the 1980s. 

 

Liz Truss is a great admirer of the Iron Lady and dreamed of becoming a modern Thatcher. 

 

Instead, she performed a rarely seen stomach splash. 

 

Market forces completely rejected Truss's new-age economic policies. They saw how the country, in the midst of a period of record high inflation, would implement a violent stimulus of the economy with borrowed money that would greatly increase the national debt. 

 

Lowered standard of living 

 

The market's conclusion was that it would end in disaster. 

 

Overnight, Britons' mortgage rates and other borrowing costs rose sharply. The pound fell like a stone. The British Riksbank had to intervene with extensive support purchases of British pension funds to save the economy. 

 

Just by putting forward his proposals, Truss triggered an immediate drop in the standard of living of ordinary Britons. 

Still, her initial message was that she certainly wasn't going to change her mind. 

 

As the stock market and the pound continued to plummet, she panicked. 

 

The first action was to sack the finance minister and personal friend Kwasi Kwarteng for making the proposals on which he and Truss both agreed. Someone was going to be sacrificed, but Truss wanted to make sure it wasn't herself. 

 

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, began his job by scrapping virtually all of Truss's proposals. No tax cuts, a greatly reduced electricity price support and suggestions that there could be cuts even in normally protected areas such as healthcare and defence. 

 

The market responded by calming down. Interest rates stopped rising. The pound regained its value. 

 

But what was left was a heavily sprained British Prime Minister who has lost almost all his credibility.

 

Gap flap 

 

In yesterday's hearing in the House of Commons, she was openly mocked by the opposition. Labor leader Keir Starmer listed all her proposals that had been thrown in the bin and for each item he listed the entire opposition side of the House shouted "away". 

 

Starmer finished his verbal smack with: So why is she (Truss) still here? 

 

The House of Commons exploded in derisive gasps.

 

         

         Liz Truss during Wednesday's hearing in the House of Commons. Photo: Jessica Taylor/AP 

 

Indeed, this kind of spectacle belongs to the tradition of the British Parliament. But Truss had provided the Starmer with rare live ammunition. 

 

The chaos was too much for the conservative party. Although, according to the rules, Truss was supposed to sit safely for at least a year, she was pressured by the party to resign. 

Photo: Rob Pinney/Getty Images 

Brexit behind everything 

 

It is simply about the party's survival and ability to govern further. The next general election is not scheduled until 2024. But if it were held today, the Conservatives would be wiped out of power. 

 

The party needed an urgent change of leadership. 

 

Now it remains to be seen whether the Tories intend to repeat the usual process that ends up pitting two candidates against each other in a membership vote in a month or two. Or if you speed up the process by giving the party leader post to Rishi Sunak who came two behind Truss in the early autumn. 

 

Another conceivable name is Jeremy Hunt, who successfully jumped in as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has tried to become Prime Minister twice before but failed. 

 

Over everything hangs the British exit from the EU. Truss is the fourth Conservative prime minister to be forced out of power since the Brexit vote in 2016. A turnover in the leadership position that only Italy can rival. 

 

Brexit has so far proved to be anything but a success for the country despite all the Conservative leaders' promises to the contrary.  

 

Truss would make Britain great again. Instead, she was fired in record time.