An unrepentant Liz Truss has sought to blame a left-wing infiltration of thinktanks, the Bank of England and other “institutions” for the market turmoil during her brief premiership.
Ms Truss was speaking at an Institute for Government event about what she believes are the issues with the UK economy.
Her 49 days as prime minister – the shortest ever – ended after attempts to reform the economy culminated with the Bank of England having to prevent pension markets from collapsing as markets expected interest rates to soar on borrowing to pay for tax cuts.
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Liz Truss’s rise and fall
Ms Truss did admit that she tried to go too far, too fast. She said: “It was certainly true that I didn’t just try to fatten the pig on market day but tried to rear the pig, fatten the pig and slaughter it on market day.”
But she did not apologise – despite being asked several times about her time in Downing Street – and pointed out that interest rates and gilt yields are now higher than when she was in office.
Sky’s economics and data editor Ed Conway explained that the “ham-fisted” way in which Ms Truss tried to change policy led to her losing the confidence of the markets, which set off “mines” and shook confidence in the UK’s economy.
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At the end of her speech, Ms Truss revealed she would be heading to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, where she would be “saying more”.
This conference is Rishi Sunak’s first as leader.
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In her speech, Ms Truss said: “Certainly as a politician, trying to deliver what I believed people had voted for, there was a lot of institutional bureaucracy in the way.
“And even during the leadership election campaign, and maybe this did not make me popular with the OBR and the Bank of England, I pointed out that there was an orthodoxy in Britain about economic policy and I tried to challenge that orthodoxy.
“And I didn’t find a massive level of support, frankly, from those institutions.”
Image: Ms Truss is the UK’s shortest serving prime minister
She argued that, after the end of the Cold War, “free market economists went off to lucrative jobs in the city allowing academic institutions and think tanks to be captured by the left” – and this made her attempts to reduce tax and increase growth harder.
Ms Truss called on Mr Sunak to make cut taxes – saying her successor needs to cancel the rise in corporation tax, cut the top rate of income tax and reform IR35, as well as advocating for the return of VAT-free shopping for tourists.
The Bank of England was singled out by the former prime minister, arguing that they had kept interest rates too low for too long and extended an era of cheap money without warning of the consequences.
Mark Carney, a former governor of the central bank, accuse Ms Truss of contributing to a weakening of the UK’s economic standing and creating “Argentina-on-the-Channel” rather than “Singapore-on-Thames”.
Ms Truss said: “I’m afraid there’s quite a lot of finger-pointing going on from people like Mark Carney because they don’t want to admit their culpability or the culpability of their central banking associates in this.
“And I again think, of course politicians should be held accountable and responsible for what we do, but when there are people with significant power, you know, I don’t feel that the same questions are necessarily asked about them.”
Asked by Sky political correspondent Ali Fortescue if there was a credibility crisis when Ms Truss was in Number 10, the former leader said: “It’s very difficult if the government of the day has an economic policy that clearly, leading economic institutions in the UK and indeed internationally, don’t necessarily agree with.”
She pointed out comments by the IMF and Joe Biden when she was prime minister.
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Ms Truss added: ” I don’t regret the choice I made and if people say, well, you put the case back for free markets, what I think I have been able to do … this has given me a real insight into why it’s so difficult for governments to deliver, you know, a smaller state or tax cuts.
“It’s not just a problem that there isn’t enough political agreement, we actually have real institutional issues with delivering these things and that is what I’m going to be exploring further.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to “reject the path of least resistance” and consider increasing taxes in the budget.
The Institute for Government (IfG), a leading think tank, said Labour’s “rash” and “unrealistic” approach to tax has left the chancellor reaching for “piecemeal changes”.
The government has repeatedly said it will not increase VAT rates, income tax or national insurance at the budget in November.
But a report by the think tank calls on Ms Reeves to commit to serious tax reform, instead of reaching for an “eclectic grab bag of tax raisers”, which could further complicate the system.
It comes after the Resolution Foundation proposed a 2p cut in national insurance, matched by a 2p rise in income tax, to create a “level playing field” and protect workers’ pay.
Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said Ms Reeves was “preparing even more tax rises, set to hit families already struggling and choke off jobs at the very moment we need them most”.
She added: “Every Labour government ends the same way, with more people out of work, higher taxes and a bigger black hole in the public finances.”
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Is Britain heading towards a new financial crisis?
Ms Whately’s remarks came as the government announced a £25m funding boost for the expansion of youth hubs.
The Premier League has joined forces with Labour to support the expansion, with top football clubs signing up to help get more young people into work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden will be speaking to Sky News Breakfast about the plans this morning.
Scrapping two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, report suggests
Meanwhile, a report has suggested scrapping the controversial two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, but not necessarily help with a youngster’s early development and their readiness for school.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluded the policy has “no statistically significant impact” on the proportion of children in England achieving what is known as a “good level of development” by age five.
The two-child limit, which was announced by the Conservatives in 2015 and came into effect in 2017, limits child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
The government is expected to publish a strategy to tackle child poverty this autumn and has been under pressure to scrap the policy, which charities and organisations working in the sector estimate pulls more than 100 children a day into poverty.
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting chair Caroline Pham said her agency is looking to allow derivatives traders to post stablecoins and tokenized assets as collateral.