ANOTHER MARGARET THATCHER?

"I am backing remain [in the EU] as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home."

"We must leave the European Union, deal or no deal, by October 31... Taking back control of our trade policy means the British people are back at the helm..."

Liz Truss made the first statement back in 2016—before the referendum on leaving the EU—as the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the cabinet of the Brexit opponent David Cameron. The second statement was made in 2019, when she was the  Secretary for Foreign Trade under Boris Johnson. Apparently, a new leader of the Conservative Party and UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is the author of the diametrically opposed statements.

By the way, she has not been an avid conservative either.

Mary Elizabeth Truss was born in Oxford on July 26, 1975 into a family of staunch Labour supporters. Her parents often took her to political demonstrations, particularly against the policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A strong supporter of her parents' views in her youth, Liz changed her political views after enrolling at the Oxford University. She became a Liberal Democrat and was even elected a president of the student wing of the party. However, after graduating from Oxford, Truss joined the Conservative Party.

Her father, John Kenneth Truss, professor of mathematics at Leeds University, admitted that he could not understand his daughter’s conversion to a Tory. For a while he even thought she might be ‘a Labour special agent trying to undermine the Conservative regime from within’. Liz Truss says that going to Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union was a key factor in her decision.

The change of her views on the Brexit can also be explained. She said she was against leaving the EU solely because of her loyalty to David Cameron.

Having worked in the governments of the three prime ministers—Cameron, May and Johnson—Liz Truss has shown loyalty not only by her statements but also by trying to demonstrate diligence in her work. Yet she would occasionally do a bit too much to prove this.

As foreign trade minister under Johnson, Truss has actively sought to renegotiate trade agreements with other countries after Brexit, positioning herself as an ambassador for a new 'Global Britain'. Yet no one had ever said that these agreements were not much different from the previous ones when the UK was part of the EU. Truss was so obsessed with sharing her Instagram success stories that her staff began joking that they were working for Instagramming Truss Department. Her fellow party members, however, didn't mind as it was a pretty good demonstration that Brexit was indeed a success.

As Foreign Secretary, Truss fully supported Johnson in shaping Britain's aggressive response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But when she began to openly and insistently urge the British to go to war in Ukraine, the Tory cabinet was forced to distance itself from her statements, saying that this was not the official view and there were many other ways to support Ukraine.

Problems everywhere

Obviously, Liz Truss has taken the reins at a difficult time for the UK. She inherits a prolonged recession predicted by the Bank of England, double-digit inflation, rising interest rates and cost of living crisis, stagflation, a workforce crisis at NHS, power-sharing difficulties in Northern Ireland, renewed signals from Scotland keen to hold a second referendum on independence and other problems of various magnitude of urgency. Let alone the effects of COVID, which continues to affect the mental health of many Britons.

There is another equally important difficulty. The new Prime Minister will face a serious credibility problem. The electorate trusted Boris Johnson, his ministers, his party, until Partygate broke out.

Of course, the circumstances might change, and the new leader might be able to persuade voters to trust the Tories again, fix the coming protracted recession, resuscitate the NHS, and reinforce the Global Britain brand as a positive international force. This is a difficult task even for a popular politician, who has at least five years of governance experience.

However, the ratings of Liz Truss are not good, especially before the elections upcoming in the next two years maximum. According to a YouGov poll, only 12% of Britons trust Truss as a good leader; 52% consider her a bad one. Britons are divided on whether she will be a better prime minister than her predecessor Boris Johnson. However, they believe she will be worse than any other prime minister since Margaret Thatcher.

Any resemblance to Thatcher?

Liz Truss has been trying hard throughout her political career to be like Margaret Thatcher. This includes her appearance. For example, during a visit to Russia in February 2022, she wore a fur hat similar to the one Thatcher wore at NATO exercises. In November last year, she was photographed on a tank in Estonia, just like her idol. And for her first debate for the premiership, she wore a blouse with a bow, a style that Thatcher loved.

Liz Truss also positions her economic and political initiatives as prime minister in strong compliance with Thatcher's ideas. Interestingly though even among the Iron Lady's associates there is no consensus as to whether Truss's vision of British economic reform is really consistent with the ideas of her famous predecessor.

For example, Professor Patrick Minford, one of Britain's leading experts specialised in macroeconomics since the 1970s and Thatcher's economic adviser, whom she consulted with in transforming the UK economy in the 1980s, believes that Thatcher would have supported Liz Truss' economic ideas. "I think Liz Truss has a lot of those characteristics – hard work, and a strategic grasp of what needs to be done. And I think she realises how difficult it can be to get things done because the existing system puts up so many obstacles. She has good claim to be the nearest thing we’ve got to Mrs. Thatcher," he said.

But Lord Griffiths, a former political adviser to Margaret Thatcher, sees no similarities, accusing Liz Truss of being adventurous with the economy for her promises to reverse the recent national insurance increase as well as the planned corporate tax increase. "I can't count the number of times Mrs. Thatcher has told me that one of her greatest fears was that one day one of her chancellors would cut taxes as a 'bet on the future of the economy'”.

Stop Putin

In her interview with The Telegraph, the new prime minister said her approach to tackling the country's problems would be twofold: immediate action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and a plan for economic growth. She said she would soon unveil a ten-year plan for public service reform and a ten-year plan to change the rate of UK economic growth, adding that "we should grow at an average of 2.5%".

To solve the energy crisis, Truss plans to freeze energy bills for millions of households this winter. Annual energy bills for the average household were due to jump from £1,971 to £3,549 from October this year. The new government is set to freeze energy bills at around £2,500. More than £100bn of borrowing is planned to cover the costs. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, has assured that the measures will last two years and will help businesses and families "get through this winter and next". In parallel, there are plans to increase gas and oil drilling in the North Sea to meet the UK's medium-term energy needs.

Next, Truss is considering cutting income tax and VAT. She also plans to cut business rates to help small companies. The prime minister will repeal the national insurance increase, which came into force in April, and environmental levies on energy bills for two years, which she believes will help prevent a recession. She also said she would review the inheritance tax as part of a general overhaul of the tax system.

Moreover, Liz Truss argues that she will withdraw the UK from the international agreement that sets the global minimum rate of corporation tax at 15%. This agreement will not be effective until it is ratified by all signatory parliaments. But even Joe Biden, an ardent supporter, is failing to get it through the Senate.

In the UK, the agreement has been opposed by the right-wing Conservative Party, which argues that it is an unacceptable violation of national sovereignty and bad for economic growth.

The prime minister has also promised to divert billions of pounds from the NHS to social care to free up space in hospitals. She wants the £13bn a year earmarked for the NHS as a result of national insurance increases to be diverted to local authorities to pay for the care of older people.

Liz Truss is confident that "further migration reforms are needed in the UK to make sure we can really stop illegal immigration". But at the same time she has suggested that thousands of foreign workers should be allowed to come to the UK each year to do temporary agricultural work, such as fruit picking. She believes that "the current version of the Northern Ireland Protocol undermines the UK's position". Truss promised there would be no second referendum on Scottish independence during her tenure, as she had pledged to strengthen and defend the union. She also said that the UK would increase spending on the armed forces to 3% of GDP by the end of this decade and review plans to reduce the size of the army.

Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Liz Truss described herself as a "freedom fighter" for that country, telling members of the Conservative Party that they could trust her to do whatever she could to ensure the defeat of Vladimir Putin.

Able to listen

No matter what and how her critics feel about Liz Truss, they have to admit that she has surrounded herself with a strong team of experts on issues concerning foreign affairs and domestic policy, economy, Brexit.

For example, Liz Truss's chief economic adviser is Matthew Sinclair, who is respected among economic experts for his impeccable centre-right flair on spending, taxes and regulation, an understanding of the value of competition, but also his extensive experience in regulatory bodies.

Apparently, the strength of the new premier is her ability to listen. We have yet to see her ability to draw right conclusions. Patrick Minford, whom Liz Truss frequently visits for advice, believes that "she got going on free trade pretty fast and pretty firmly and I was really impressed by that: she now understands what needs to be done."