Liz Truss Still Does Not Understand The Impact Of Her Mini-Budget

Liz Truss still appears to be in denial over the impact her disastrous mini-Budget had on the UK economy.

The ex-prime minister furiously defended her historically short premiership on social media after Labour’s new chancellor John Healey said the “Truss penalty” is to blame for the UK’s stagnant economic growth.

Truss hit back on social media, writing on X: “The penalty is a result of NOT following my policies.”

Truss’s 2022 mini-Budget announced £45 billion unfunded tax cuts, triggering market chaos and sending the value of the pound into decline.

She was forced out of office by her own panicked MPs as the Bank of England was forced to step in to steady the economy.

But Truss appeared to ignore all of that with her online retort – while also overlooking how Healey had also criticised two of her Tory predecessors.

The chancellor said: “Our borrowing costs are at historic highs and the reasons are plain.

“High borrowing, low growth has allowed national debt to rise from 64% of GDP – the amount we produce as a country – to 100%.

“[David] Cameron’s austerity gutted our public services, while [Boris] Johnson’s hard Brexit hammered goods exports.

“Unfunded spending then, after Covid, meant that inflation hit 11%, increasing the cost of living and the cost of business.

“And of course, UK debt costs were historically around the G7 average, until Liz Truss’s mini-Budget crashed the economy and collapsed confidence in Britain’s fiscal strength.

“Since 2022, we have been paying that Truss penalty, as we battle to re-establish belief in Britain and the UK’s fiscal sustainability.”

Labour has frequently used Truss’s legacy to mock their Tory opponents.

During his first prime minister’s questions, Andy Burnham claimed Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had chosen the “author of the mini-Budget” to be her new shadow chancellor.

Andrew Griffith was promoted to the senior role over the bank holiday.

He had been a keen supporter of Truss when she was in power and defended the mini-Budget during the dying days of her premiership when he was financial secretary to the Treasury.

Asked by broadcasters on Sunday if he really was fiscally responsible, Griffith hit back: “There’s only one person responsible for the Liz Truss’s budget, and that’s Liz Truss.

“I was a very junior minister at the time, I wasn’t cited on that Budget, and my portfolio did not include tax and spend decisions.”

But he also claimed that the mini-Budget “wasn’t all bad”.

Since losing her seat at the 2024 general election, Truss has drifted closer to the pro-Donald Trump MAGA community and repeatedly claimed the West is in severe decline due to high taxes.

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