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For a prime minister in workplace for simply 49 days, Liz Truss’s new e-book is jam-packed with jaw-dropping tales from her time in Downing Street.
The ex-Tory chief, who took over from Boris Johnson in the summer season of 2022, has provided a glance behind the scenes in her memoir Ten Years to Save the West.
From pondering “why me, why now?” after studying the Queen had died to suggesting Boris Johnson’s canine left fleas in No10, The Independent appears to be like at the key revelations from the bombshell e-book.
She thought ‘why me, why now?’ after Queen’s dying
Ms Truss has revealed that she thought “why me, why now?” when she learnt that the Queen had died – simply two days after she had been sworn in as prime minister.
The ex-PM mentioned she went into “a state of shock” when advised of the dying of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
The memoir, serialised in the Daily Mail, particulars how the “machine kicked into action” when phrase reached No10 that the Queen wouldn’t have the option to be part of by way of video hyperlink, as had been deliberate, for the formal swearing in of recent ministers.
“My black mourning dress was fetched from my house in Greenwich, south London,” Ms Truss wrote. “Frantic phone calls took place with Buckingham Palace. I started to think about what on earth I was going to say if the unthinkable happened.
“On Thursday, we received the solemn news that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral. To be told this on only my second full day as Prime Minister felt utterly unreal. In a state of shock, I found myself thinking, ‘Why me, why now?’”
The Queen advised her: “Pace yourself”… And she didn’t hear
Ms Truss additionally revealed the late Queen advised her to “pace yourself” throughout their first and ultimate assembly as prime minister.
Of her historic assembly at Balmoral in Scotland, which occurred simply two days earlier than the monarch’s dying, Truss says she and the 96-year-old the Queen “spent around 20 minutes discussing politics”.
“She was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty,” she wrote.
“Towards the end of our discussion, she warned me that being prime minister is incredibly aging. She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.’ Maybe I should have listened.”
The final phrases the Queen mentioned to her: ‘I’ll see you again next week’
Ms Truss has revealed the final phrases the late Queen mentioned to her.
At the finish of their Balmoral assembly, the Queen is alleged to have advised the former PM: “I’ll see you again next week.” But she handed away two days later, and didn’t see Ms Truss once more.
Ms Truss’s husband predicted premiership ‘would all end in tears’
The former PM’s e-book particulars how her husband predicted her premiership “would all end in tears”.
She detailed the second she learnt that her predecessor, Boris Johnson, was pressured to resign.
Ms Truss was in Bali at the time as international secretary and mentioned: “As I walked along the beach in Indonesia I started crying.”
“Even Hugh [her husband], who predicted it would all end in tears, accepted that this was the moment I was expected to run and that if I didn’t, people would say I had bottled it,” Truss wrote.
She tried to cancel Cop26 local weather convention
Liz Truss has admitted she tried to scrap the Cop26 local weather convention, hosted in Glasgow in 2021.
The former PM was chief secretary to the Treasury at the time and, in her memoir, says she “strongly questioned” whether or not the “jamboree” ought to be a precedence for the authorities – pointing to the £200m+ price ticket.
Ms Truss’s predecessor after which boss Boris Johnson mentioned Cop26 was a summit that “proved the doubters wrong”, hailing it as a hit that drew 120 heads of state to Britain and noticed the world “unite in calling time on coal”.
Ms Truss wrote in her e-book that she was in “a minority of one” in questioning the convention, which she described as “environmental virtue signalling”.
She added that, after making an attempt to ditch Cop26, then surroundings secretary Michael Gove described her as “the Grinch who wants to stop Christmas”.
Accuses Joe Biden of ‘utter hypocrisy and ignorance’
Ms Truss took goal at her US counterpart, claiming Joe Biden’s criticism of her tax-cutting mini funds was “utter hypocrisy and ignorance”.
The ex-PM lashed out at Mr Biden for becoming a member of a “pile-on” in opposition to her plans.
She had wished to scrap the 45p price of revenue tax for prime earners, and Mr Biden mentioned he “disagreed with the policy”.
“This was utter hypocrisy and ignorance,” Ms Truss wrote. She added: “The top rate of income tax in the U.S. was 37 per cent and only charged to people earning the equivalent of £483,094 and above. By contrast, the top rate in the UK was 45 per cent and paid by those on more than £150,000.”
Downing Street was ‘infested with fleas’
Ms Truss advised Boris Johnson’s canine Dilyn left fleas in No 10 in extraordinary extracts from her new e-book.
She claims to have spent a number of of her six weeks as prime minister “itching” as a result of Downing Street was “infested” with the pests.
“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.”
And in an indication of the brevity of her time period, Ms Truss says she ordered furnishings for Downing Street however was pressured to resign earlier than it arrived.
Press convention after mini-budget was like ‘officiating at my own funeral’
Ms Truss mentioned a press convention in the dying days of her administration felt like “officiating at my own funeral”.
She described her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng rejecting calls to keep in the UK whereas markets have been going into meltdown, as an alternative heading off to an IMF convention in Wasington, DC.
After sacking Mr Kwarteng, she described dealing with “the media frenzy alone” at a press convention to reverse the company tax reduce and clarify how his substitute Jeremy Hunt would restore confidence in markets.
“It was a pretty ghastly experience, which felt a lot like officiating at my own funeral,” she wrote.
She wished to sack the governor of the Bank of England
Ms Truss has additionally revealed she wished to sack the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, throughout her time as PM.
And her disastrous financial coverage – which led to her being ousted from workplace – may have been much more excessive as a result of she wished to “appoint new senior leaders” in the UK’s central financial institution.
She admitted the transfer would have “amounted to a declaration of war on the economic establishment”.
In the finish, she determined to “try to work constructively with the governor” of the financial institution.
Liz Truss was ‘too busy’ to again Brexit
Liz Truss has mentioned she was “too busy” to again Brexit throughout the 2016 referendum marketing campaign.
The ex-PM, who campaigned for Remain in the run-up to the Brexit vote, mentioned she might have backed Vote Leave if she had “time for more existential thinking”.
Ms Truss mentioned wanting to go away the EU was “considered quite a far out, fringe position”.
But she added: “Had I spend more of my time thinking about it during those years, I might have come to share that view… but I had been busy as a minister, knee-deep in floods and other distractions”.
She additionally mentioned she was reluctant to again the Leave marketing campaign as a result of she “did not think it could win” and out of loyalty to David Cameron and George Osborne who had “put me where I was”.
She bemoans having to type out her personal hair and make-up
In one extract from the e-book, Ms Truss complained about having to type out her personal hair and make-up regardless of being prime minister.
She mentioned: “Despite now being one of the most photographed people in the country, I had to organise my own hair and makeup appointments.”
And she describes feeling like a prisoner in No 10, even struggling to get drugs for a cough.
“On one occasion when I had a cough, my diary secretary had to go out in the middle of the night to buy me some medicine. This clearly wasn’t her job, but there was no one else to ask,” Ms Truss wrote.
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