“Do you have an apology for the people whose mortgages went up so much when you were in office?”
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has refused to apologise for her disastrous economic policies which led to an increase in mortgage costs, before she was booted out of office.
Truss has been promoting her new book ‘Ten Years to Save the West’ during a round of media appearances, in which she has shown little humility, blaming everyone else for her economic policies which resulted in financial turmoil, a collapse in the pound and the Bank of England having to step in to save pension funds.
Appearing on Sky News, Economics Editor Ed Conway asked: “Do you have an apology for the people whose mortgages went up so much when you were in office?”
Truss replied: “Well, I question the premise of what you’re asking me, Ed. Because the fact is, mortgage rates have gone up across the world.
“The issues that I faced in office were issues of not being able to deliver the agenda I’d set out, because of a deep resistance within the British economic establishment.”
Borrowing from the Trump playbook, Truss has blamed the ‘deep state’ for her failures in office.
She added: “I think it’s wrong to suggest that I’m responsible for British people paying higher mortgages. That is something that has happened in every country in the free world.”
Officials were concerned that Truss’ book included details about advice the late Queen had given her.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss is reported to have broken Whitehall rules, after failing to get the Cabinet Office’s clearance to reveal details of private conversations with the late Queen in her new memoir.
Under the conventions of the ‘Radcliffe rule’, former ministers are required to hand over a pre-publication copy of their memoir for vetting, to ensure that sensitive details pertaining to national security, or which may harm the UK’s relations with other nations or affect the confidential relationship between ministers and officials are not published.
The Times reports that “Truss had sent a copy of her book, Ten Years to Save the West, to the Cabinet Office “in good time” pre-publication.”
“However, she is understood not to have had clearance to publish some specific details.”
The former prime minister attacks flagship climate deals and makes false claims about electric vehicles, Russia’s influence on energy policies, and net zero.
The new book by former Prime Minister Liz Truss urges the UK, U.S. and EU to drop their landmark climate change laws, spreads falsehoods about green policies, and fondly recalls an attempt to cancel a major climate conference.
Truss, who is the Conservative MP for South West Norfolk, resigned as prime minister in October 2022 after just 49 days in office.
Since leaving 10 Downing Street, Truss has attempted to expose the “deep state” forces that allegedly brought down her premiership, while advocating for “free market” ideas within the Conservative Party, helping to launch the Popular Conservatives group.
In her book, Ten Years to Save the West, which she is promoting widely this week, Truss writes that “the zealous drive to net zero”, the UK’s legally binding 2050 climate target, amounts to “unilateral economic disarmament” and is “a drag on economic growth”. She also claims that, while serving in the Treasury, she attempted to cancel the 2021 COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Truss writes: “We should abolish the Climate Change Act and instead adopt a new Climate Freedom Act that enables rather than dictates technology”. She adds that “the U.S. should reverse the Inflation Reduction Act, and the EU should abandon its equivalent measures”.
The Climate Change Act legalised the UK’s commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. The Inflation Reduction Act is a $369 billion package of grants and subsidies by the U.S. government to spur green technology investment.
Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have said that without “immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors” limiting global heating to 1.5C is beyond reach.
Restricting global temperatures to this threshold – the target agreed by the UK as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement – would prevent the worst and most irreversible effects of climate change, including floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires.
In the book, Truss also attacks climate advocates, writing that “the environmental movement is fundamentally driven by the radical left”, adding: “This ‘watermelon’ tendency is green on the outside, red on the inside – a modern rebranding of socialism. It features the same instincts of collectivism and authoritarianism.”
Truss writes that “we should cancel” the United Nations annual COP climate summit, and falsely claims that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than those powered by fossil fuels.
“In recent years, more radical forms of climate misinformation and disinformation have become mainstreamed”, said Jennie King, director of climate research and policy at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue think tank. “Such content continues to grow in virality and engagement online, but its impacts are vastly increased when platformed in the media or by politicians.”
King said “the normalisation of wild and outlandish claims”, with climate action “being framed through a conspiratorial, tribalist and anti-scientific lens”, can lead to “real-world harm”.
“When such ideas are conveyed from the very corridors of power, it sets a dangerous precedent”, she added.
The IPCC warned in 2022 that efforts to tackle climate change were being delayed by “rhetoric and misinformation that undermines climate science and disregards risk and urgency”.
Truss Claims ‘Couldn’t be Further from the Truth’
Truss’s book is published by Biteback Publishing, a company owned by former Conservative deputy chair and major party donor Michael Ashcroft.
The former prime minister dedicates a chapter to green policies, titled ‘A Hostile Environment’, apparently a play on the term used by the Conservative government about its anti-immigration policies.
Truss writes that current environmental policies should be scrapped in favour of a “free market” approach. On energy, she calls for more fossil fuel extraction, advocating a mix of “oil and gas as well as nuclear and renewables”, adding: “The use of North Sea oil and gas is crucial, so there needs to be investment in that too. There also should be fracking in the UK.”
Fracking for shale gas is a controversial practice that risks causing air, water, and noise pollution.
She fails to mention that oil and gas firms receive major subsidies and tax breaks from the government, which would logically be removed in a “free market” energy system. The UK government has given £20 billion more in support to fossil fuel producers than renewables companies since 2015.
Truss’s book also attacks the multilateral UN COP process, which has seen agreements on transitioning away from fossil fuels, and financial support for poorer countries suffering the worst effects of climate change.
Truss writes that “we should cancel the COP gravy train”. She claims that, in 2018, when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, she made “11th-hour attempts to ditch COP26”, the UN climate summit hosted by the UK in 2021, arguing that it was not a spending priority.
At COP26, nearly 200 countries agreed to ramp up efforts to cut emissions, also calling on wealthy countries to double their funding to poorer nations that have contributed the least to climate change. More than 40 countries also pledged to quit coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel and the world’s largest source of carbon dioxide emissions.
The book also spreads false claims about climate policies. Truss writes that “in the UK and Europe, Russia has funded anti-fracking campaigns”, a claim which is not supported by any evidence.
Truss claims that policies like “the switch from petrol to diesel in cars or the use of electric vehicles, have either harmed the environment in other ways or empowered our polluting adversaries elsewhere in the world”.
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank, told DeSmog: “The notion that the switch to electric vehicles will have little discernible environmental impact, and make us dependent on imported gas and coal, couldn’t be further from the truth.
“The total lifetime CO2 emissions of an electric vehicle, from being built to being driven, are three times lower than a petrol vehicle – a figure that will only get higher as our grid becomes cleaner. And while older technologies like petrol cars and gas boilers rely on fossil fuels imported from abroad, EVs and heat pumps can be powered by electricity generated by British wind and solar farms.”
Truss also writes of “ludicrous claims that pursuing a net zero agenda … will boost the economy and drive growth”.
Walker added: “The UK’s net zero economy is now worth £74 billion, and grew by nine percent in 2023. The wider economy grew just 0.1 percent. Talking down the economic opportunities net zero has to offer the UK is at odds with a growth agenda when the U.S., EU and China are all competing for clean industries.”
Truss’s Climate Denial Ties
Truss has a long history of opposing climate policies. In the 2022 Conservative Party leadership contest, she attacked solar farms on agricultural land and, during her brief time in 10 Downing Street, she overturned the UK’s ban on fracking. (A policy reversed by her successor, Rishi Sunak.)
As DeSmog reported at the time, Truss’s leadership campaign received £30,000 from a pro-fracking lobby group, £10,000 from a climate denial activist, and £100,000 from the wife of a former BP oil executive. Truss received a further £5,000 from Lord Vinson, a Tory peer who has provided funding to the UK’s leading climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Since leaving office, Truss has received £250,000 in speaking fees, including £7,600 last April from the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing U.S. think tank that has long promoted climate science denial. Heritage President Kevin Roberts provides a long and glowing blurb for Truss’s book.
Earlier this year, Truss helped to launch the Popular Conservatives (PopCon), a new initiative run by Truss-ally Mark Littlewood, the former director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank which received funding from oil major BP for at least 50 years.
At the PopCon launch, Truss attacked “net zero zealotry”, claiming voters “don’t like the net zero policies which are making energy more expensive”
‘The public are fed up of Liz Truss. She destroyed many of the hopes and aspirations of a generation’
Stephen Flynn MP has been praised online after laying into the legacy of Liz Truss following her stint as Prime Minister and offered her some sound advice.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has spent the week promoting her new book and attempting to deflect from the economic damage caused in the aftermath of her and Kwasi Kwarteng’s infamous mini-budget two years ago.
However the real-life effects of her disastrous, unfunded tax cuts were laid out by the Scottish National Party Westminster leader, who was commended for his sharp takedown of her time in and after Downing Street.
Asked on ITV’s Peston show this week where he would put the balance of responsibility for the fiscal crisis caused by the mini-budget, Flynn laid into the Tory Party and Liz Truss’s legacy.
During the interview on Wednesday, Flynn said: “It’s on the Conservative party’s doorstep because it was the Conservative party as an entirety that put Liz Truss in the position where she was able to do the damage that she did.”
Tory Party members have delivered a scathing verdict on Rishi Sunak and his cabinet, with a record number of ministers given a negative approval rating, according to the Conservative Home website.
It’s a further sign of just how unpopular Sunak and his government are, ahead of the May 2nd local elections, as pressure continues to mount on the Prime Minister.
The latest survey of Tory members conducted in March, shows that 12 ministers have negative ratings, that is up from 11 the month before.
At the bottom of the table is Michael Tomlinson, illegal immigration minister, with a negative rating of 43.1, with Rishi Sunak next at -27.7.
The Prime Minister is then followed by chancellor Jeremy Hunt on minus 22.7, with Michael Gove on -14.3 and Oliver Dowden on -12.0. Lord Cameron is on -7.8.
The plot shows just how out of touch and deranged the Tory party is.
A group of Tory MPs is plotting to bring Boris Johnson back in to a senior role with the Conservative Party and also want to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with Suella Braverman.
The plot, which the Sun is reporting has been hatched by the Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO) – a powerful Tory members group, comes as Sunak continues to face mounting pressure with the Tories trailing the Labour Party in the polls by around 20 points.
With local elections taking place on May 2nd, it’s expected that there will be another push by Tory rebels to oust Sunak should the party perform badly. Some analysts have predicted that the Tories could be set to lose 500 council seats in the upcoming local elections on May 2nd. That’s half of the party’s councillors facing election.
Campaigners are demanding an end to the ‘toxic influence’ of oil money in UK politics
Activists dropped a massive banner over Westminster Bridge this morning to launch a new campaign vowing to challenge MPs who accept oil money in the run-up to a general election.
As MPs return to parliament after the Easter recess, climate campaigners have issued a warning that they will be holding politicians to account to end the “toxic influence” of fossil fuel lobbyists in Westminster.
Campaigners for the Stop Polluting Politics movement said they will challenge current and prospective MPs to reject donations from high-polluting industries as they argue the influence from Big Oil is leading to the rollback of key climate policies.
It comes as the UK Government came under huge criticism for announcing over 100 new oil and gas licences, while it was revealed the Tory Party received £3.5m from polluters and climate deniers in 2022.
Labour said the prospect of her returning as leader “will send shivers down the spine of working people”.
Shameless Liz Truss who became Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister after her disastrous economic policies resulted in her being booted out of office after just 49 days, has refused to rule out running again for leader of the Tory party.
Truss, who has shown no humility after wrecking the economy with her mini-budget, which saw mortgage rates spiralling and resulted in the pound plummeting in value, believes she has ‘unfinished business’.
The former Tory party leader made the comments during an interview with LBC, while promoting her new book, ’10 years to save the West’, which is out today.
Liz Truss was all over the airwaves today while promoting her new book ‘Ten Years To Save the West’ making a whole number of bizarre and eyebrow-raising claims.
The Tories are trying to be ‘fashionable’
When asked about the government’s climate policies (forget the numerous recent climate policy rollbacks) Truss believed the government had a “ruthless Net Zero agenda” which she claimed was “ruining the economy”. She went on to say it was all down to the Conservatives wanting to “appear fashionable, rather than basing what they’re doing on their principles”. Not sure that’s going very well for them.
The ‘Left smear’ against her
The former-PM made the claim that the backlash against her mini-budget wasn’t due to its disastrous impact on the UK economy and millions of UK households, but in fact down to a ‘smear’ campaign by the Left.
The former PM who seems to lack any sense of self-awareness claimed on LBC the Left were “smearing” her by blaming everything wrong with the economy on her mini-budget.
“What they are saying is not born by the facts, It’s a smear,” Truss said. “I’m countering it and a lot of economists are countering it.
“In the same way they say the government was trying to abolish the forests, they are trying to smear me with economic results that I’m clearly not responsible for.”
