Truss was booted out of office in record time – so why are some still defending the indefensible?

There is strong feeling that low taxes are right and properly conservative, writes John Rentoul

Truss is going to say something about tax cuts before the Budget on 15 March (PA)

There is a lot of idiocy about, although it can be quite hard to pin down. Liz Truss, who was in the US before Christmas talking to Republicans about how she tried to do “too much, too soon”, is going to say something about tax cuts before the Budget on 15 March. But until then, she is not going to offer “a running commentary”.

The front page of the Daily Mail this morning said: “Why we have to cut taxes and go for growth.” The gist of the news story was that the IMF’s gloomy forecast for the UK economy would “add fuel to the growing clamour from business leaders and Tory MPs for Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak to slash taxes and produce a convincing plan for recovery”.

The only actual clamourers were Michael Fabricant, a Conservative MP, who said that “colleagues will say, ‘That’s not enough, Jeremy, you’ve got to give us something more.’” Clamouring by proxy, as it were. And Sir Martin Sorrell, the former boss of WPP, who “said last week that while the Treasury’s purse strings needed to be held tightly for now there must be a ‘clear plan for future growth and tax cuts’”. In other words, he said – last week – that he agreed with the government’s policy.