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Liz Truss book - latest: Ex-PM claims she was ‘too busy’ to back Brexit – as she endorses Trump

Liz Truss launched into a scathing attack on Joe Biden saying it ‘has to be’ Donald Trump to win the presidential election.

Barney Davis
Tuesday 16 April 2024 14:20
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Liz Truss endorses Donald Trump for US president

Liz Truss has claimed she was “too busy” to back Brexit as she backs Donald Trump to win November’s US presidential election.

It comes as Ms Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, said the “world was safer” under Trump’s presidency as she criticised incumbent Joe Biden.

The former PM, who was in office for 49 days, suggested she may have backed Vote Leave if she had “time for more existential thinking”.

Ms Truss said wanting to leave the EU was “considered quite a far out, fringe position”.

But she added: “Had I spend more of my time thinking about it during those years, I might have come to share that view… but I had been busy as a minister, knee-deep in floods and other distractions”.

Ms Truss also launched into a scathing attack on President Joe Biden saying it “has to be” Donald Trump to win.

“I don’t think (President Joe) Biden has been particularly supportive to the United Kingdom. I think he’s often on the side of the EU. And I certainly think I would like to see a new president in the White House,” she told LBC.

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Liz Truss refuses to rule out another run as Tory Party leader

Liz Truss could run for leader of the Conservative Party again saying “it’s never wise to rule anything out in politics, is it?”

The Tory former prime minister claimed she had “unfinished business” at the top of politics, as she toured the media ahead of the publication of her book, Ten Years To Save The West.

Her tenure in Downing Street lasted just 49 days, after the mini budget, which included unfunded tax cutting measures, triggered mass market turmoil.

Asked by LBC if she would want to return to frontline politics in the event the Conservatives lose the coming general election, Ms Truss said: “I definitely have unfinished business. Definitely. And I think the Conservative Party has unfinished business.

“I think, if we’re honest with ourselves, we haven’t done enough to reverse the Blair legacy.”

Ms Truss insisted she had not written her book “to run a leadership campaign”, but wanted to build support for her political ideas.

But pressed if she would rule out standing for the Tory leadership in future, she said: “Well, it’s never wise to rule anything out in politics, is it?”

(Getty Images)
Barney Davis16 April 2024 14:20
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Liz Truss’ explosive new memoir Ten Years to Save the West is out now – here’s where to buy

Having famously been outlasted by an iceberg lettuce in a blonde wig, Truss’s new book is an attempt to explain the failures of her time in office – including her radical free-market policies that crashed the British economy.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on a copy Daisy Lester’s writes:

Where to buy Liz Truss’ new book Ten Years to Save the West

The former-prime minister lasted seven weeks in office

Barney Davis16 April 2024 13:40
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'Liz Truss’s memoir is ludicrous and shows how unworthy of office our shortest-serving PM was’

Read Sean O’Grady’s scathing one-star review of Liz Truss’ “self-serving and poorly composed” ‘Ten Years to Save the West’, in which she recaps her doomed, disastrous 49 days in office.

Liz Truss’s ludicrous memoir shows how unworthy of office our shortest-serving PM was

It’s rare for a political memoir to be as self-serving and poorly composed as ‘Ten Years to Save the West’, in which Truss recaps her doomed, disastrous 49 days in office. Whether she’s being informed of the Queen’s death or crashing the economy, the deluded former PM reserves the greatest sympathy for herself

Barney Davis16 April 2024 12:38
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‘14 years to ruin a nation’ Labour mock Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak on fake book cover

The Labour Party are having fun mocking Liz Truss’ memoir by splicing an image with Rishi Sunak on the front and changing the title on her publication day.

The ex-Tory leader, who took over from Boris Johnson in the summer of 2022, has offered a look behind the scenes in her memoir Ten Years to Save the West.

But Labour changed the title to ‘14 years to ruin a nation’ in a dig at Tory rule adding tongue-in-cheek quotes from Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Rishi Sunak.

Barney Davis16 April 2024 12:20
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Liz Truss only offered £1.5k advance on memoir

Liz Truss was paid just over £1,500 for her advance on the UK rights to her memoir 10 Years to Save the West.

On her register of interests for 7 March 2024, it says she received £1,512.88 from Biteback Publishing Ltd as an initial advance on a book.

She was received £6,161.40 from Regnery Publishing for the US rights.

In comparison, Nicola Sturgeon got the first of 4 £75,000 advances totalling £300,000 for her “deeply personal and revealing” memoir, after a bidding war between nine publishers.

Barney Davis16 April 2024 11:52
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Liz Truss called for National Insurance to be scrapped - in 1997

Liz Truss has revealed that she called for National Insurance (NI) to be scrapped in 1997, a pledge which Rishi Sunak has adopted in recent weeks.

As senior Labour figures including Wes Streeting warn that a vote for Rishi Sunak is a vote for Ms Truss, the ex-PM’s book reveal that she called to abolish the tax at Tory conference in front of Margaret Thatcher 27 years ago.

“It was a fake tax, claiming to be an ‘insurance’ against unemployment and sickness. In fact, it was just another way of fleecing the British public,” she said.

Mr Sunak said last month it is his “long term ambition” to scrap the levy, describing it as a form of “double taxation”.

Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Sunak was “drawing from the Liz Truss playbook” and risked “making the same mistakes” as the ex-PM, who sent mortgage rates soaring.

Archie Mitchell16 April 2024 11:20
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Partygate investigator Sue Gray gave Liz Truss a hug

Sue Gray hugged Liz Truss after the ex-PM was demoted from justice secretary to chief Treasury secretary by Theresa May, the memoir reveals.

Ms Truss has described being taken by Ms May into the Margaret Thatcher study and told that she was being demoted to the more junior post outside the cabinet.

The then deputy cabinet secretary Ms Gray was on hand for consolation, however.

Ms Truss wrote: “Before I left Downing Street, I had to see the Cabinet Office official responsible for the mechanics of ministerial appointments, Sue Gray.

“To my surprise, she took it upon herself to commiserate with me by giving me a hug, before telling me that as a result of my demotion, my salary was being cut.

“I didn’t welcome her unsolicited embrace – I am not a hugger – but given how delicate I was feeling, she got off lightly.”

Ms Gray went on to author the daming Partygate report into Boris Johnson’s No10 during lockdown and now works as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff.

Archie Mitchell16 April 2024 11:12
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Liz Truss mixed up Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden’s wives

The former PM said she mixed up US first lady Jill Biden and Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte.

Writing about an event at the Ukrainian Institute of America, Liz Truss said: “Across the room I saw a blonde lady I recognised. I called out ‘Hi, Dr Biden!’ to the woman I believed was the US First Lady.

“As she got closer, I realised it wasn’t her at all, but French President Macron’s wife, Brigitte. I hope she didn’t hear.”

Archie Mitchell16 April 2024 10:54
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Liz Truss warns Donald Trump that the ‘deep state’ is out to get him

Liz Truss has warned Donald Trump that the “deep state” will try to bring him down if he is victorious in the election.

“The administrative state undermined Mr Trump’s first term and undermined my tenure as Britain’s prime minister, forcing me out of office after 49 days,” she writes in the Wall Street Journal.

“I assumed that I would be able to drive through the agenda on which I was elected. How wrong I was. The opaque British bureaucratic state undermined my proposed reforms, and their American equivalents will have Mr Trump in their sights if he is victorious in November. The deep state will attempt to undercut him even more than it did in his first term.”

Liz Truss endorses Donald Trump for US President: ‘The world was safer’

Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister was speaking as she launched her new book, Ten Years to Save the West

Barney Davis16 April 2024 10:35
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Liz Truss wing of the Tory party fighting against smoking ban - Labour shadow minister claims

Wes Streeting has accused the Liz Truss wing of the Conservatives of trying to choke off the smoking ban that is due to be debated today.

He posted on X: “Rishi Sunak might be weak but Labour will not allow the Liz Truss wing of the Conservative Party to choke off the Smoking Bill today.

“We will give our full support to this Bill so that the next generation are even less likely to smoke than they are to vote Conservative.”

Barney Davis16 April 2024 10:07

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