Liz Truss’s month of mayhem: From bumpy rides to Balmoral to bumpier battles in Birmingham
The plane flying Liz Truss to meet the Queen at Balmoral for her appointment as prime minister a month ago was hit by turbulence in bad weather and struggled to land at Aberdeen airport.
The aircraft’s helpless circling in mid-air was seen at the time as a bad omen for her premiership.
And after a month of mayhem for the new PM, perhaps it was indeed a warning of trouble ahead.
Politics live: Truss takes aim at ‘anti-growth coalition’ in pivotal speech
In the month since Ms Truss was confirmed as Tory leader, her leadership has faced the death and mourning of the Queen, a bungled budget, markets chaos, U-turns, polls suggesting a Labour landslide and a backbench “coup” against her.
Her response, in a fighting and defiant speech at the end of a fractious and chaotic Tory conference in Birmingham, was to declare: “Whenever there is change, there is disruption. And not everyone will be in favour of change.”
Let’s take a look at the key dates in this rocky start in Number 10.
Monday 5 September
Much has changed dramatically since Ms Truss defeated Rishi Sunak for the Conservative crown by 57.4% to 42.6% – a comfortable margin, but slimmer than in other recent Tory leadership elections.
In her victory speech at London’s Queen Elizabeth II conference centre, she described the contest as “one of the longest job interviews in history”.
She praised her predecessor, Boris Johnson, and said: “You got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.”
Tuesday 6 September
Safely back from stormy Balmoral, Ms Truss strode up Downing Street with her slightly bemused looking husband Hugh O’Leary and told the nation: “Together we can ride out the storm.”
But the political – and economic – storm, already becoming perilous for the new PM because of soaring energy prices, was only just beginning.
The PM and her husband Hugh O’Leary arrive in Downing Street as her premiership begins
Although her swift cabinet reshuffle contained few surprises and her appointments had been widely predicted, it was a brutal purge of those ministers who had backed her leadership rival, Mr Sunak.
Into the top jobs came her most loyal allies and backers: Therese Coffey, Kwasi Kwarteng, James Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadhim Zahawi and Brandon Lewis.
Banished to the backbenches were Michael Gove, Grant Shapps, Sajid Javid and many more, in a cull that began to backfire badly at this week’s Tory conference, when Mr Gove and Mr Shapps led the mutiny on the 45p tax cut.
Wednesday 7 September
In an eagerly awaited first Prime Minister’s Questions for the new premier, Ms Truss put in a sound performance and delighted Tory backbenchers with her counter-attacks against Sir Keir Starmer.
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Truss told the Commons during her first PMQs that she wants to keep taxation low
When the Labour leader demanded a windfall tax on energy giants to fund her plans to help families pay soaring energy bills, she gave her now familiar answer: “We cannot tax our way to growth.”
Thursday 8 September
The pivotal moment in the PM’s month of mayhem came when she was passed a note by Cabinet Office Minister Nadhim Zahawi as she delivered her Commons statement on her £150bn package to freeze energy bills.
The news in the note – that the Queen was gravely ill just two days after Ms Truss had been to see her at Balmoral to be appointed prime minister – stunned Westminster and put politics into suspension for 11 days.
After the announcement of the Queen’s death at 6.30pm, the new PM appeared in Downing Street in a black dress and, with her voice quivering with emotion, paid a solemn tribute to the monarch.
The PM delivers delivers a speech after the death of the Queen
The Queen was “the rock on which modern Britain was built”, she said, and her death was a huge shock to the country and the world.
She said the Queen’s sense of duty had been a personal inspiration to her and many other Britons, adding: “She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure.”
9 to 19 September
With the nation still reeling from the shock of the Queen’s death, the PM led two days of tributes in Parliament, telling MPs: “In the hours since last night’s shocking news, we have witnessed the most heartfelt outpouring of grief at the loss of her late majesty the Queen.
“Crowds have gathered, flags have been lowered to half-mast, tributes have been sent from every continent around the world.”
And after King Charles’ accession to the throne the following day, Ms Truss travelled to Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff as the new King attended cathedral services to honour his late mother’s life.
King Charles III and the prime minister during their first audience
She attended her first formal audience with the new King, a meeting where it has been claimed she advised him not to attend the COP27 climate change summit in Egypt next month – a claim dismissed as “ridiculous” by 10 Downing Street.
At the Queen’s funeral she read a lesson from St John’s gospel. But as she arrived at Westminster Abbey with her husband, she would have been unaware that two Australian broadcasters commentating on the funeral mistook her for a “minor royal”.
20 and 21 September
After the Queen’s funeral, Ms Truss made a whirlwind visit to the United Nations General Assembly – a regular date in the September calendar for prime ministers, but a stern test for one only in office for two weeks.
As a newcomer, she had a middle-of-the-night graveyard slot in the speeches and at her first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden was confronted by the US president on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“We are both committed to protecting the Good Friday Agreement of Northern Ireland and I’m looking forward to hearing what’s on your mind,” he challenged her pointedly.
Friday 23 September
Back in London, the PM sat alongside her “dynamic new chancellor”, as she called him in her conference speech, Kwasi Kwarteng, as he delivered his delayed “growth plan”.
In a clumsy remark at the Tory conference, he appeared to blame the Queen’s death for the furore it provoked.
“Literally four days after the funeral, we had the mini-budget,” he said. “It was a high-speed, high pressure environment.”
The growth plan was a disaster.
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Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces tax cuts for 31 million people
Mr Kwarteng’s £45bn tax-cutting package for the rich sent the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years. He announced more than £400bn of extra borrowing over the coming years to fund the biggest giveaway since Anthony Barber’s ill-fated 1972 budget.
He scrapped the 45% rate of income tax paid by those earning more than £150,000 a year, abolished the cap on bankers’ bonuses, reversed the rise in National Insurance contributions and brought forward by a year the reduction in the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19%, pencilled in by Mr Sunak for 2024.
The respected Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies reacted: “The chancellor announced the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years without even a semblance of an effort to make the public finance numbers add up.
“Instead, the plan seems to be to borrow large sums at increasingly expensive rates, put government debt on an unsustainable rising path and hope that we get better growth. Mr Kwarteng is not just gambling on a new strategy, he is betting the house.”
The Daily Mail cooed: “At last! A true Tory budget.” But the generally Tory-supporting Economist said the government’s reckless incompetence may have already damaged it beyond repair.
Monday 26 September
After Mr Kwarteng said in a TV interview there were more tax cuts to come, the pound plunged even further.
The turmoil was a gift to Labour, enjoying a largely successful conference in Liverpool.
Thursday 29 September
But if the run on the pound was bad, worse was to come. The Bank of England was forced to calm the bond market with a £65bn bailout after a surge in gilt yields threatened to wipe out many pension funds.
At the same time, a YouGov opinion poll gave Labour a massive 33-point lead over the Conservatives, suggesting a vote share of 54% for Sir Keir’s party and just 21% for the Tories.
Sir Keir Starmer had a successful Labour conference in Liverpool. Pic: AP
It was the biggest Labour lead since Tony Blair’s honeymoon period in the months after his 1997 general election landslide.
The current Labour leader called for the recall of parliament to address the financial crisis. He urged the government to abandon the mini-budget measures which triggered the market turmoil and said the PM was a “danger” to the economy and has lost control.
Sunday 2 October
As the Tory conference opened in Birmingham, Ms Truss was accused of “throwing Mr Kwarteng under a bus” over the 45% tax fiasco and distancing herself from it when she said in an interview: “It was a decision that the chancellor made.”
As a backbench mutiny reached dangerous levels, with some leading backbenchers even claiming the PM could be ousted within weeks, she performed a humiliating late-night U-turn which was revealed to bemused and shell-shocked cabinet ministers in the early hours of Monday morning.
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Asked repeatedly whether or not her chancellor has her trust, Ms Truss chooses to avoid answering directly
After Mr Kwarteng confirmed his embarrassing retreat at 7.30am, in what looked like another snub the PM was asked three times if she trusted her chancellor but failed to declare her support for him.
Later, a sweating Mr Kwarteng gave an unconvincing conference speech, which was described as more trite than contrite.
Tuesday 4 October
As she came to the end of her first month as PM, Ms Truss’s decision to sack so many heavy hitters was coming back to bite her as the Tory conference descended into a bitter civil war.
After Michael Gove launched a series of highly targeted attacks against the cut to the 45p tax rate, the spurned Grant Shapps declared that she may have as little as 10 days to salvage her premiership and the next few days were the “critical period” for her to turn things around.
Michael Gove made his views clear during the Tory conference
Nadine Dorries, previously an enthusiastic Truss supporter, accused her of tearing up the Tory manifesto and called for a general election. Then Priti Patel accused the government of “spending today with no thought for tomorrow”.
But even worse, the bickering spread to inside the cabinet, with Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt backing those demanding the bigger benefit increase, then Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland weighing in too.
Amid the open warfare, the new Home Secretary Suella Braverman had accused rebels of mounting a “coup” against the PM on the 45% tax cut, an attack that inflamed the dissent on the backbenches.
Wednesday 5 October
In a combative fightback Ms Truss took to the stage on the final day of conference and declared war on an “anti-growth coalition”.
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Truss tells the conference in Birmingham: ‘There will be disruption – and not everyone will like it’
Thursday 6 October
Ms Truss is beginning her second month as prime minister flying to Prague for a meeting with European leaders to galvanise the response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
And unlike her bumpy journey to Balmoral a month ago, she’ll be hoping for a smooth, turbulence-free flight this time, and no more omens of another month of mayhem.
Donald Trump has announced a 10% trade tariff on all imports from the UK – as he unleashed sweeping tariffs across the globe.
Speaking at a White House event entitled “Make America Wealthy Again”, the president held up a chart detailing the worst offenders – which also showed the new tariffs the US would be imposing.
“This is Liberation Day,” he told a cheering audience of supporters, while hitting out at foreign “cheaters”.
Follow live: Trump tariffs latest
He claimed “trillions” of dollars from the “reciprocal” levies he was imposing on others’ trade barriers would provide relief for the US taxpayer and restore US jobs and factories.
Mr Trump said the US has been “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.
Pic: AP
His first tariff announcement was a 25% duty on all car imports from midnight – 5am on Thursday, UK time.
Mr Trump confirmed the European Union would face a 20% reciprocal tariff on all other imports. China’s rate was set at 34%.
The UK’s rate of 10% was perhaps a shot across the bows over the country’s 20% VAT rate, though the president’s board suggested a 10% tariff imbalance between the two nations.
It was also confirmed that further US tariffs were planned on some individual sectors including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical mineral imports.
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Trump’s tariffs explained
The ramping up of duties promises to be painful for the global economy. Tariffs on steel and aluminium are already in effect.
The UK government signalled there would be no immediate retaliation.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “We will always act in the best interests of UK businesses and consumers. That’s why, throughout the last few weeks, the government has been fully focused on negotiating an economic deal with the United States that strengthens our existing fair and balanced trading relationship.
“The US is our closest ally, so our approach is to remain calm and committed to doing this deal, which we hope will mitigate the impact of what has been announced today.
“We have a range of tools at our disposal and we will not hesitate to act. We will continue to engage with UK businesses including on their assessment of the impact of any further steps we take.
“Nobody wants a trade war and our intention remains to secure a deal. But nothing is off the table and the government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
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Who showed up for Trump’s tariff address?
The EU has pledged to retaliate, which is a problem for Northern Ireland.
Should that scenario play out, the region faces the prospect of rising prices because all its imports are tied to EU rules under post-Brexit trading arrangements.
It means US goods shipped to Northern Ireland would be subject to the EU’s reprisals.
The impact of a trade war would be expected to be widely negative, with tit-for-tat tariffs risking job losses, a ramping up of prices and cooling of global trade.
Research for the Institute for Public Policy Research has suggested more than 25,000 direct jobs in the UK car manufacturing industry alone could be at risk from the tariffs on car exports to the US.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) had said the tariff costs could not be absorbed by manufacturers and may lead to a review of output.
The tariffs now on UK exports pose a big risk to growth and the so-called headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced to restore to the public finances at the spring statement, risking further spending cuts or tax rises ahead to meet her fiscal rules.
Read more:
What do Trump’s tariffs mean for the UK?
The rewards and risks for US as trade war intensifies
A member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), David Miles, told MPs on Tuesday that US tariffs at 20% or 25% maintained on the UK for five years would “knock out all the headroom the government currently has”.
But he added that a “very limited tariff war” that the UK stays out of could be “mildly positive”.
He said: “There’s a bit of trade that will get diverted to the UK, and some of the exports from China, for example, that would have gone to the US, they’ll be looking for a home for them in the rest of the world.
“And stuff would be available in the UK a bit cheaper than otherwise would have been. So there is one, not central scenario at all, which is very, very mildly potentially positive to the UK. All the other ones which involve the UK facing tariffs are negative, and they’re negative to very different extents.”
Israel is beginning a major expansion of its military operation in Gaza and will seize large areas of the territory, the country’s defence minister said.
Israel Katz said in a statement that there would be a large scale evacuation of the Palestinian population from fighting areas.
In a post on X, he wrote: “I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.”
He said the offensive was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”.
The expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza deepens its renewed offensive.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that had begun in January ended in March as Israel launched various air strikes on targets across Gaza.
The deal had seen the release of dozens of hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but collapsed before it could move to phase two, which would have involved the release of all hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
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26 March: Anti-Hamas chants heard at protest in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living around the southern city of Rafah and towards the city of Khan Yunis, telling them to move to the al Mawasi area on the shore, which was previously designated a humanitarian zone.
Israeli forces have already set up a significant buffer zone within Gaza, having expanded an area around the edge of the territory that had existed before the war, as well as a large security area in the so-called Netzarim corridor through the middle of Gaza.
This latest conflict began when Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.
The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Read more:
Father demands protection after Gaza aid workers’ deaths
Anti-Hamas chants heard at rare protest in Gaza
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Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
Aid group Doctors Without Borders warned on Wednesday that Israel’s month-long siege of Gaza means some critical medications are now short in supply and are running out, leaving Palestinians at risk of losing vital healthcare.
“The Israeli authorities’ have condemned the people of Gaza to unbearable suffering with their deadly siege,” said Myriam Laaroussi, the group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza.
“This deliberate infliction of harm on people is like a slow death; it must end immediately.”
“Liberation day” was due to be on 1 April. But Donald Trump decided to shift it by a day because he didn’t want anyone to think it was an April fool.
It is no joke for him and it is no joke for governments globally as they brace for his tariff announcements.
It is stunning how little we know about the plans to be announced in the Rose Garden of the White House later today.
It was telling that we didn’t see the President at all on Tuesday. He and all his advisers were huddled in the West Wing, away from the cameras, finalising the tariff plans.
Follow the events of Liberation Day live as they unfold
Three key figures are central to it all.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the so-called ‘measured voice’. A former hedge fund manager, he has argued for targeted not blanket tariffs.
Peter Navarro is Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing. A long-time aide and confidante of the president, he is a true loyalist and a firm believer in the merits of tariffs.
His economic views are well beyond mainstream economic thought – precisely why he appeals to Trump.
The third key character is Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary and the biggest proponent of the full-throttle liberation day tariff juggernaut.
The businessman, philanthropist, Trump fundraiser and billionaire (net worth ranging between $1bn and $2bn) has been among the closest to Trump over the past 73 days of this presidency – frequently in and out of the West Wing.
If anything goes wrong, observers here in Washington suspect Trump will make Lutnick the fall guy.
What are Donald Trump’s tariffs, what is ‘liberation day’ and how does it all affect the UK?
And what if it does all go wrong? What if Trump is actually the April fool?
“It’s going to work…” his press secretary said when asked if it could all be a disaster, driving up the cost of living for Americans and creating global economic chaos.
“The president has a brilliant team who have been studying these issues for decades and we are focussed on restoring the global age of America…” Karoline Leavitt said.
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‘Days of US being ripped off are over’
Dancing to the president’s tune
My sense is that we should see “liberation day” not as the moment it’s all over in terms of negotiations for countries globally as they try to carve out deals with the White House. Rather it should be seen as the start.
Trump, as always, wants to be seen as the one calling the shots, taking control, seizing the limelight. He wants the world to dance to his tune. Today is his moment.
But beyond today, alongside the inevitable tit-for-tat retaliation, expect to see efforts by nations to seek carve-outs and to throw bones to Trump; to identify areas where trade policies can be tweaked to placate the president.
Even small offerings which change little in a material sense could give Trump the chance to spin and present himself as the winning deal maker he craves to be.
One significant challenge for foreign governments and their diplomats in Washington has been engaging the president himself with proposals he might like.
Negotiations take place with a White House team who are themselves unsure where the president will ultimately land. It’s resulted in unsatisfactory speculative negotiations.
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Treasury minister: ‘We’ll do everything to secure a deal’
Too much faith placed in the ‘special relationship’?
The UK believes it’s in a better position than most other countries globally. It sits outside the EU giving it autonomy in its trade policy, its deficit with the US is small, and Trump loves Britain.
It’s true too that the UK government has managed to accelerate trade conversations with the White House on a tariff-free trade partnership. Trump’s threats have forced conversations that would normally sit in the long grass for months.
Yet, for now, the conversations have yielded nothing firm. That’s a worry for sure. Did Keir Starmer have too much faith in the ‘special relationship’?
Downing Street will have identified areas where they can tweak trade policy to placate Trump. Cars maybe? Currently US cars into the UK carry a 10% tariff. Digital services perhaps?
US food? Unlikely – there are non-tariff barriers on US food because the consensus seems to be that chlorinated chicken and the like isn’t something UK consumers want.
Easier access to UK financial services maybe? More visas for Americans?
For now though, everyone is waiting to see what Trump does before they either retaliate or relent and lower their own market barriers.
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