Politics
Liz Truss Faces Backlash Over Mini Budget Comments
Liz Truss was given a brutal reminder of the impact of her policies after insisting she is “proud” of her disastrous mini-Budget.
The former Tory PM was told by LBC’s Nick Ferrari that her plan for £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts had “tanked the economy”.
Truss lasted just 49 days in Downing Street after mortgage rates soared, inflation went up and the value of the pound collapsed.
But despite the economic carnage she and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng caused, Truss – who also lost her seat at the 2024 general election – remained unrepentant on Ferrari’s breakfast show.
After predicting that chancellor John Healey will put up taxes in next month’s Budget, Truss said the UK economy is in “a doom loop”.
Ferrari told her: “Many of my listeners will think it’s a bit rich you criticising other people’s Budgets – I know it wasn’t your Budget, but it was done under your watch.”
Truss replied: “It was my Budget and I was proud of what was in it.”
Ferrari then told her: “It tanked the economy, Liz Truss.”
She hit back: “No it didn’t. It didn’t, Nick Ferrari.”
She went on to blame the Bank of England for the economic crisis which hit her fledgling government.
Truss said: “The day before the mini-Budget, the Bank of England, which had been printing money for 10 years, announced quantitative tightening. What does that mean? They were deliberately making government debt more extensive.”
Asked if the Bank of England was “conspiring” against her, she said: “I believe they were ideologically against what I was trying to do, and they did not co-ordinate with what we were doing with our Budget.”
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