Star comment: Liz Truss remains in office if not in power after disastrous start
Downing Street is in turmoil. A game of fantasy economics has cost Britain tens of billions of pounds and looks set to return us to an era of austerity.
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng tried to buck the markets and failed, leaving the nation’s economy and reputation in tatters.
While the costs of Covid, the ongoing challenges arising from Brexit and the fall-out of Russia’s war in Ukraine had already severely affected economic activity, the Prime Minister and former Chancellor, with their ill-advised ‘fiscal event’, made things decidedly worse.
By trying to take a flame to economic orthodoxy, they came unstuck. They were gamblers betting the house on the toss of a coin – only to see it land on the flipside. Jeremy Hunt will restore some stability and it seems that he, rather than Ms Truss, now holds real power.
Ms Truss has made one of the worst starts to a term in office of any Prime Minister, and certainly the most chaotic in living memory. She has been forced into a humiliating reversal on the tax cuts that formed the basis of her leadership campaign. Those tax cuts were, of course, the very ones that Rishi Sunak told us would lead to this mess. He was right.
Ms Truss, sadly, said what she needed to to secure the votes of Conservative Party members, irrespective of the consequences. While she has fulfilled a personal ambition by arriving at Number 10 Downing Street, hers is a hollow victory.
Ms Truss did not command the support of the British public, nor, indeed, of her own MPs. She finds herself without a mandate, with her leadership promises shredded and with little credibility.
Yesterday’s emergency statement is an effort to restore faith in the economic credentials of the Government and buy her time to re-establish her authority. The big question is: will it be enough – or is she already fatally wounded? The latter appears more likely. With the Conservatives trailing in the polls, MPs know they will be out of a job in 2024 unless they back change.
With Ms Truss at the helm, it is difficult to see them winning the next General Election. With another person in office, their prospects would improve, at least to some extent.
In the meantime, Ms Truss remains in office but not in power. In all likelihood, she may not remain in office for too long.
The problem is, who will replace her? Some want Boris Johnson, some want Ben Wallace while others want Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. While the Government should be charting a clear path, MPs are plotting regime change. It is an unseemly, unedifying mess.
