Prime Minister Liz Truss Was The Author Of Her Own Demise

22nd October 2022

Faisal Islam, Economics Editor at the BBC sets out the sorry saga of Liz Truss ignoring expert advice and ploughing on to her own demise and to the detriment of everyone. Read on -

Liz Truss would still be prime minister had she not pushed ahead with the mini-budget, which caused her economic experiment, the entire basis of her leadership mandate, to fail in full view of the country and the world.

I discovered that the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had handed the new chancellor a draft forecast of the economic outlook on her first day in office, that might have effectively limited the ambition of the mini-budget. It had also offered to supply a forecast to accompany the mini-budget, showing its impact on the UK economy. Both of these moves were rejected.

Bafflingly, Ms Truss's advisers believed that by eschewing the forecasts, the markets would simply ignore the massive £45bn unfunded nature of her tax cuts. Instead it put a target sign on British assets. Downing Street was trying to mess with the controls of the British economy, at a delicate time in global markets.

So when the mini-budget was met with a crash in sterling and a massive blow-out in UK borrowing costs - a clear loss of market credibility - my private assumption was that there was going to be a mass U-turn on the strategy. A U-turn so violent that it could end her stay at Number 10.

Read the full BBC article HERE