Does Liz Truss really think she can stage a comeback?

The former prime minister is said to have ‘half a hope’ of leading the party again. Adam Forrest looks at the uphill battle to restore her reputation

Back in the public eye: Truss leaves her house on Sunday (Getty)

It’s been a little over 100 days since Liz Truss left Downing Street in ignominy, kicked out by her own party after her unfunded tax cuts caused market panic and crashed the pound.

But the former prime minister thinks three months of silence is penance enough, lashing out at the left-wing “economic establishment” and cowards in her own party as she launched an astonishing defence of her radical plan.

Unrepentant and determined to lose any sense of shame about her short stint at No 10, Truss has insisted her radical plan of unfunded tax cuts was largely the right one – taking a swipe at successor Rishi Sunak over the corporation tax rises.

So how much trouble does the former PM intend to cause her successor? Does she seriously harbour Tory leadership ambitions as part of her comeback?

Perhaps. Truss has “half a hope” she can lead the Tories in opposition after the next election, allies claimed at the weekend. “She thinks she lost the battle but this is a long game,” one told The Times.

If she has any chance at all of building support, her first is restoring some kind of respectability for the “growth agenda” among MPs keen to see tax cuts sooner rather than later.

To that end, her most loyal backers have formed the Conservative Growth Group (CGG), and have revived WhatsApp a group from her leadership campaign.

Truss also visited the US last month and met with sympathetic Republicans in a bid to establish a credible link between the low-tax agenda of Reaganonics and Trussonomics.

However, only 20 or so loyalist MPs – including ex-ministers Simon Clarke and Chloe Smith, who went down with the ship at the end the six-week Truss premiership – are believed to have joined the CGG launch event last month.

While there is frustration with Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s cautious, “managerial” approach to the stagnant economy among many MPs who are keen to offer tax cuts to their voters, few have good things to say about Truss.

As Tory MP Richard Graham said on Sunday, the Truss period is something most colleagues and most voters “would rather not really remember too clearly”, sparking widespread fear and loathing about the Tories’ handling of the economy.

Every appearance by Truss is a gift to Labour, delighted to make the link between her hapless chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget and rocketing interest rates – something Keir Starmer likes to call “the Tory mortgage penalty”.

Still, the reputation of few politicians remains in the gutter forever. Truss may be hoping to salvage her reputation in the coming months, before beginning to build broader support among the right.

Let’s not forget she was backed by 113 MPs before triumphing with the membership in the leadership contest. If Hunt’s March Budget goes down badly and the May local election results are very bad, it is not impossible that more and more Tory MPs will lose the sense of shame attached to those wild six weeks in autumn.

But Truss does not have to compete only with Sunak for the love of fickle Tory MPs. Boris Johnson is also thought to be eyeing a comeback when the time is right, and will remain a formidable opponent for anyone who hopes to lead the party should an opening become available.