Liz Truss has blamed the “powerful economic establishment” for her disastrous time as prime minister.
In her first public comments since being forced to quit Number 10 after just 49 days, she took aim at a wide variety of political opponents as she insisted her plans to boost economic growth by slashing taxes were correct.
In a 4,000-word article for the Sunday Telegraph, Truss pointed the finger at Treasury officials, Joe Biden, the International Monetary Fund, Tory MPs and the Office for Budget Responsibility for making her job impossible.
Truss’s time in office ended following the economic carnage caused by her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, which unveiled £45 billion-worth of unfunded tax cuts.
It caused the value of the pound to plunge, interest rates to soar and led to the Bank of England having to bail out the UK’s pensions industry.
While admitting she was not “blameless” for the fiasco, Truss mad it clear that she has no regrets over the economic policies that she pursued - and took a swipe at the approach of her successor, Rishi Sunak.
She said: “I still believe that seeking to deliver the original policy prescription on which I had fought the leadership election was the right thing to do, but the forces against it were too great.
“I am not claiming to be blameless in what happened, but fundamentally I was not given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support.”
In a clear dig at Sunak, she made clear her opposition to the forthcoming rise in corporation tax from 19p to 25p in the pound - a policy he introduced as chancellor, but which she tried unsuccessfully to overturn.
Truss said she wanted to be PM to change things rather than “manage decline or to preside over our country’s slide into stagnation”.
Meanwhile, it also emerged that Truss - who is expected to make a number of media appearances next week - is preparing to make a “hawkish” speech on China later this month.
She will address a conference of international politicians in Japan, with her speech billed as focusing on Beijing’s threat to Taiwan.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a campaign group seeking to co-ordinate international pressure on Beijing, is arranging the event on February 17.
One ally of Truss said the speech will be “hawkish”, adding: “She’s expected to address Sunak’s decision to brand China a strategic competitor rather than a threat.”
In November, Sunak said the “golden era” of UK-Chinese relations was over but described the nation as a “systemic challenge” rather than a threat.