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Blaming Labour’s cuts on mini-budget legacy ‘economic illiteracy’ – Liz Truss

30 Sep 2024 3 minute read
Liz Truss. Photo Clodagh Kilcoyne PA Images

Liz Truss has called it “economic illiteracy” to suggest that Labour having to make cuts and raise taxes is because of her ill-fated mini-budget.

The former prime minister was asked at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference how she would respond to the charge that whatever cuts or tax rises Labour now has to make are the consequence of the economic legacy she left.

“That’s complete economic illiteracy,” she said.

‘Malevolent’

Ms Truss also told The Telegraph’s Tim Stanley during the event that she thought Sir Keir Starmer’s plans were “bad” and “malevolent”.

“I think they’re malevolent, but I also believe that the government and the governments of this country is dysfunctional,” she said.

Asked if the country under Labour was “on the road to socialism”, Ms Truss said: “We are already a socialist country.”

“We have huge swathes of the economy controlled by regulation and the bureaucracy,” she said.

Ms Truss said this was a “cumulative effect” of Brown and Blairite policies and then decisions by Tories who came after.

The former prime minister said she does not think the Conservatives can say all the problems Britain has now have been caused by the Labour Party.

She said: “Yes, they’re making it worse. Yes, they’re talking the country down. Yes, they don’t have any of the right solutions. Yes, their analysis is totally flawed.

“But a lot of the problems we are facing now are as a result of us failing to turn things around.”

Leadership candidates

The four party leadership candidates – Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly – have not acknowledged “how bad things are” in the country and the Tory party and they should “explain what went wrong”, Ms Truss said.

She said she only supported one Labour policy, adding: “There’s only one thing that the Labour Government had announced that I support, which is decriminalising the TV licence.”

Ms Truss spoke to a packed audience at the Tory Party conference.

She said she is still thinking about what to do next after losing her seat as an MP in the July election.

Ms Truss added: “What is certainly true is I’m not going to give up on this fight, right?

“I think this is the fight of our lifetimes … saving Western civilisation, and that is what I’m focused on.”


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Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
12 days ago

Liz Truss has called it ‘economic illiteracy’. Called what, her autobiography? Ah, very good. I’ll pre order my copy now.

J Jones
J Jones
12 days ago

It is not for someone who is evidently economically illiterate to decide what is economically illiterate or not.

Are we next having Alexander Boris Johnson explain to us what we should believe is lying and what is truthful?

Nation.Cymru is superb, but I wouldn’t waste any time following either of the above, those who want to can ask her for one of the thousands of copies of her book in her garage or ask him for a copy of his Daily Fail.

Amos Johnston
Amos Johnston
12 days ago

Economic illiteracy is borrowing money to give to those who already have plenty thinking it will increase the amount of goods and services sold in the economy, aka “growth”, when it’s obvious to everyone else that this group are already buying everything they want to buy. A bit more money in their pocket won’t change anything.

Jeff
Jeff
12 days ago

Ha! A big fan of trump, darling of that bunch of far right loons, the Heritage foundation, and a big fan of deregulation, her IEA budget scared the bejesus out of the markets so much they hoiked her out of No10 and put the Lettuce runner up in (after the BofE ponied up wagon loads of loot to settle the bond). Fortunately she didn’t have time to gut the judiciary any more than it has been under the Cons. And it was rumoured she would yank cancer care to pay for her budget. She blamed the bullies that ran away.… Read more »

Annibendod
Annibendod
12 days ago

Liz Truss calling others economically illiterate. That’s a lot of front. Does have Stan and Ollie vibes about it though … “There’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!”

Richard Davies
Richard Davies
12 days ago

As well as being economically illiterate, she clearly has no clue what socialism is. The uk is no where near socialist! We certainly don’t have any socialists in the present government because Mr keir starmer evicted them from the labour party!

J Jones
J Jones
12 days ago
Reply to  Richard Davies

It’s 50 years ago this month since the last hard left government was elected. Starmer knew this would just continue with Corbyn and his cronies. Don’t forget that Corbyn was de-selecting people who didn’t follow his orders when he was in charge, until he ended up drowning in his own medicine.

Marc
Marc
12 days ago

She needs specialist help

Alan Jones
Alan Jones
12 days ago
Reply to  Marc

I agree Marc, there was a general sense of alarm when truss was PM when her economic policy (along with Kwarteng remember) was called out for the dangerous nonsense it was. Since then her delusional ramblings & belief in conspiracies along with her performances on tv ( she now seems to be saying only she can save the western world) have become disturbing to behold to say the least, not so much for us as to herself. To observe Lizz Truss now is almost akin to watching her own personal breakdown in real time. Whatever we may think of Truss… Read more »

Erisian
Erisian
12 days ago

It’s Nerrine Skinner I feel sorry for. Lix Truss just isn’t funny any more and we are all desperate to hear the last of the lettuce

John Ellis
John Ellis
12 days ago

Doesn’t matter what she says – what counts is the consequences of the policy which she briefly attempted to drive. Maybe, on an MP’s scale of pay and certainly on a minister’s, she could well afford the hikes in her mortgage payments, assuming she had a mortgage, Whereas an awful lot of poor saps on average or sub-average incomes have been left struggling.

If you seek to borrow, the folk who might lend to you penalize you if they see you as a dubious risk. And that applies to governments no less than it applies to individuals.

Barry Taylor
Barry Taylor
11 days ago

Why is the political non-entity that is Liz Truss still being given the oxygen of publicity? There is a reason she had the shortest tenure of any Prime Minister, and that reason is utter incompetence. That she still feels qualified to weigh in on discussions about the economy shows an astonishing lack of self-awareness.

Jeff
Jeff
11 days ago
Reply to  Barry Taylor

Think tanks gonna think tank. Pump enough money in the right direction and you get her as PM. Same money is out there.

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