Grant Shapps says Liz Truss had right priorities but failed as she did not deal with ‘big structural issues’
Grant Shapps has said Liz Truss had the right priorities but failed as she did not try to deal with the “big structural issues” first.
The business secretary said he agreed the UK should have a low-tax economy, as the short-lived prime minister advocated, but inflation and debt needed to be dealt with first.
He was speaking the morning after Ms Truss released a 4,000-word essay in the Telegraph on Saturday night about what she had wanted to do as PM and why she thought it did not work.
People can ‘come to our own conclusions’ over Truss claims – live politics updates
Mr Shapps, who was home secretary for Ms Truss’ final six days, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I noted that she said that they hadn’t prepared the ground for these big tax changes.
“And I think the truth is, and we know this, what you’ve got to do first is deal with the big sort of structural issues.
“Deal with inflation first, deal with the debt so you’re on a downward trajectory.
“And then you look towards tax cuts.”
He added: “I completely agree with Liz’s instinct to have a lower tax economy but what we know is if you do that before you’ve dealt with inflation and debt you can end up in difficulty.
“You can’t get the growth out of nowhere.”
Grant Shapps was home secretary under Liz Truss for her final six days
Ms Truss said she was never given a “realistic chance” to implement her radical tax-cutting agenda and claimed she was not warned about the fragility of the British economy.
The former PM also claimed she was ousted by a “very powerful economic establishment” that has “shifted Left-wards” – despite her own MPs forcing her out.
Ms Truss said she has a mandate from Conservative members, after they voted for her over Rishi Sunak, implying the current PM does not as his leadership never went to a vote of the membership.
In her first detailed comments since she was ousted from Number 10, Ms Truss said she had not appreciated the strength of the resistance she would face to her plans.
Read more: Analysis – Truss may be no Messiah but her political comeback has rattled some MPs
‘We’re back to where we should be’
Despite previously calling Ms Truss “tin-eared”, Mr Shapps refused to directly criticise Ms Truss’ leadership, which she called time on after just 44 days following the disastrous mini-budget in September.
He added that, as an MP and former Tory leader, she had the right to put her argument across in the article.
But he backed current PM Rishi Sunak in a backhanded swipe at his predecessor, saying the prime minister is tackling high inflation to ease pressure on the economy before growth can happen.
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Three PMs in three months: A timeline
“I think the main thing for people to know is Rishi Sunak’s come in,” he said.
“He’s removed that premium that we saw because the markets didn’t like what was going on back then and entirely removed the additional premium that was being applied to, essentially, our mortgage rates.
“So we’re back to where we should be.
“And he’s getting on with the difficult things in a world where Putin’s invaded a neighbouring country and inflation is therefore going up. He’s got on with the difficult job of dealing with those things.”
Truss article ‘very important’
Simon Clarke, Tory MP and chief secretary to the Treasury until Ms Truss became PM, said her article poses “important questions” about the extent to which it is possible to deliver tax cuts and/or spending reductions with current economic modelling.
“To what extent does the OBR model the results of policy, and to what extent does it pre-determine it by virtue of its modelling framework?” he tweeted.
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Former Conservative MP for Reading East, Rob Wilson, who was a Truss supporter, said her article is “very important” and “you have to take it seriously” when a former PM says she was “stymied by her own Treasury” and raises questions about the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
“I think that she didn’t get a proper go,” he told Sky News.
“She made some mistakes, sure. But, you know, we all make mistakes in life.
“She certainly shouldn’t have had organisations blocking her from doing the things that she set out to do, that’s for certain.”
World
Romania scrambles fighter jets after Russian drone ‘breaches airspace’ – as Zelenskyy warns of war ‘expansion’
Romania has said a drone breached its airspace during a Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine.
Fighter jets were scrambled on Saturday, coming close to taking down the aircraft as it was flying very low before it left national airspace toward Ukraine, defence minister Ionut Mosteanu said.
Romania is the latest NATO member state to report an incursion, with Poland deploying aircraft and closing an airport in the eastern city of Lublin on Saturday, three days after it shot down Russian drones in its airspace.
They are the first known shots fired by a member of the Western alliance during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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Russian drones enter Polish airspace: What we know
Meanwhile, military exercises are taking place over the Barents Sea, with Russia and Belarus conducting joint drills.
Russian MiG-31 fighter jets equipped with hypersonic ballistic missiles completed a four-hour flight over the neutral waters as part of ongoing “Zapad 2025” military exercises, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.
Romania has had Russian drone fragments fall on to its territory repeatedly since Russia began waging its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Two F-16 fighter jets were initially scrambled by Romania, and later two Eurofighters.
Citizens in the southeastern county of Tulcea near the Danube and its Ukrainian border were warned to take cover, the defence ministry said.
The ministry said the drone dropped off their radar 20km (12 miles) southwest of the village of Chilia Veche.
While helicopters were surveying the area looking for possible drone parts, Mr Mosteanu told private television station Antena 3 that “all information at this moment indicates the drone exited airspace to Ukraine”.
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Russia getting ‘ready for war with NATO’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that data showed the drone breached about 10km (six miles) into Romanian territory and operated in NATO airspace for around 50 minutes.
He said Belarusian airspace was also used for entry into Ukraine’s airspace.
Mr Zelenskyy described the reported incursion as “an obvious expansion of the war by Russia,” and called for “tariffs against Russian trade” and a “collective defence”.
He warned: “Do not wait for dozens of “shaheds” [Iranian-designed drones] and ballistic missiles before finally making decisions.”
NATO has said it plans to strengthen eastern flank defence, following earlier Polish airspace violations.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio called the Polish incursion “unacceptable and unfortunate and dangerous”, and said while it was unclear if the drones were intentionally sent to Poland, if it was the case, it would be “a highly escalatory move”.
Experts, including Sky News international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn have previously suggested the Kremlin is testing the West with gradual but steady escalation – a tactic known as “salami slicing”.
Donald Trump boarding Air Force One on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
On Saturday, Donald Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he was “ready to do major sanctions on Russia”, but only when all NATO nations “do the same thing” and “stop buying oil from Russia”.
Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions against Moscow, so far without any action.
The president also said NATO members should also put 50% to 100% tariffs on China – and only withdraw them if the conflict ends.
NATO member Turkey has been the third largest buyer of Russian oil since 2023, after China and India, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, with fellow members Hungary and Slovakia also buying energy supplies from Moscow.
The war in Ukraine would end if all NATO countries stopped buying oil from Russia, Donald Trump has said.
The US president, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, said the alliance’s commitment to winning the war “has been far less than 100%” and the purchase of Russian oil by some members is “shocking”.
Doing so “greatly weakens your negotiating position and bargaining power, over Russia,” he said.
NATO member Turkey has been the third largest buyer of Russian oil since 2023, after China and India, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, with fellow members Hungary and Slovakia also buying energy supplies from Moscow.
A NATO ban on the practice plus tariffs on China would “also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR”, he added.
The president said NATO members should also put 50% to 100% tariffs on China – and only withdraw them if the conflict ends.
‘China’s grip’ on Russia
“China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia,” Mr Trump posted, and powerful tariffs “will break that grip”.
The US president has already placed a 25% import tax on goods from India over its buying of Russian energy products.
Mr Trump said responsibility for the war fell on his predecessor Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He did not include in that list Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion.
President Donald Trump at a New York Yankees baseball game on Thursday. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Village changes hands
On the battlefield on Saturday, Russian troops took control of the village of Novomykolaivka in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
A drone attack hit an oil refinery in the city of Ufa, around 870 miles (1,400km) from the border with Ukraine, the local governor said, calling it a terrorist incident.
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Drones shot down in Poland
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Friday the 32-nation alliance would place military equipment on the border with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to deter potential Russian aggression.
Operation ‘Eastern Sentry’ followed Wednesday’s provocative incursion by multiple Russian drones into the airspace of Poland, another NATO member.
Polish forces shot down the drones, which Moscow said went astray because they were jammed.
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Prince Harry’s surprise visit to Ukraine
Prince Harry’s surprise visit
The Duke of Sussex made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday, promising to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of injured military staff.
Travelling on an overnight train to Kyiv, Prince Harry, who has since left the country, told The Guardian: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“We have to keep it [the war] in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
A barrage of airstrikes has killed at least 32 people in Gaza City as Israel continued intensifying its offensive there, medical staff have said.
The dead include 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
Health officials said one of the strikes killed a family of 10, including a mother and her three children.
The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed with 14 members of his family.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes when contacted by the Associated Press news agency.
Israel has in recent days increased its strikes on Gaza City, having ordered residents to leave what it says is Hamas’s last stronghold.
Palestinians run for cover. Pic: AP
Hundreds of thousands of people are still in the city, struggling under conditions of famine, which was declared by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) three weeks ago. Israel previously denied there is a famine in Gaza.
Aid workers say the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, but many families remain stuck due to difficulties with transportation and housing.
Others have been displaced many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the Strip is safe.
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Earlier this month: IDF drops evacuation flyers on Gaza before tower bombed
In a message shared on social media on Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to “leave immediately” and move south into what it is calling a humanitarian zone.
Sites in southern Gaza, where Israel is telling people to go, are overcrowded, the United Nations has said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli army said more than 250,000 people have left Gaza City – but the UN puts the number at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September.
The UN and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
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The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours.
Israel has said it now controls 75% of Gaza, much of which has been reduced to fields of rubble. It has vowed to take the rest.
The current conflict followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and took around 250 people hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
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