Liz Truss has described herself as a “victim” of “sabotage” almost two years after her party kicked her out of 10 Downing Street.
The former prime minister lost her job after just 49 days in office once she unveiled £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in her mini-Budget, a move which sent the markets into turmoil.
She also lost her seat in the general election last month.
But speaking to The Daily Telegraph’s podcast, the Daily T earlier this week, Truss once again refused to accept responsibility for her fiscal policies.
Explaining why her radical plans to reduce taxes had to be dropped so suddenly in 2022, she said: “I knew, and I was directly threatened with this, that there could potentially be a meltdown in terms of the government not being able to fund its own debt.”
“And I couldn’t risk that,” she said, saying that was “more important to me than me keeping my job”.
She said “powerful people” including the governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey and members of the Tory Party “undermined me”.
Truss continued: “For the good of the country, I had to remove myself from office.
“That doesn’t mean I think they were right to do that.
“I was the victim, frankly, of an attempt to sabotage my administration by people who didn’t agree with my policies.
“That was the issue, and what I am saying – and why I am speaking out now – is unless we fix that accountability problem we have in Britain, is we are not going to be able to get proper conservative policies, like lower taxes, supply-side reform, and cutting the size of government.
“Because we have institutions that do not believe in those policies and are prepared to sabotage a government that tries to implement them.”
Truss then said, “I am not responsible for people’s mortgages going up,” – and blamed the Bank of England instead, as the independent institution is responsible for the country’s monetary policies.
It’s worth noting the Bank actually had to intervene to stabilise the pensions market after the mini-Budget.
Truss has tried to repeatedly to redeem her reputation in recent months.
She even slammed the current government after civil servants named her in the official briefing notes for the King’s Speech last month.
Her name was subsequently removed from the notes on the gov.uk website – but that has not stopped Labour politicians from criticising her.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves blamed the economic struggles of the UK on Truss’s premiership on Thursday.
Speaking after the Bank of England finally lowered interest rates for the first time in four years, she maintained that the British economy’s foundations are still unsteady.
Reeves said: “Millions of people are still paying higher mortgage rates after the Conservatives’ mini-Budget less than two years ago that sent interest rates and mortgage rates soaring.”