Category Archives: liz truss

Analysis: Liz Truss’s Plan To Pay Public Sector Workers Less Outside London Wasn’t ‘Misrepresented’

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When all else fails, shoot the messenger.

As Liz Truss’s plan to save £8.8bn by paying civil servants less outside London and the south east provoked a furious Tory backlash, her team pressed the panic button.

In the preamble to the inevitable screeching U-turn, a spokesperson for Truss told journalists: “Over the last few hours there has been a wilful misrepresentation of our campaign.”

This was, alas, copper-bottomed nonsense.

The press release issued yesterday by the Truss campaign announcing the policy makes it crystal clear that replacing national pay bargaining with “regional pay boards” would mean smaller salaries for those in less-affluent areas.

It said: “This will make it easier to adjust officials’ pay, ensuring it accurately reflects where they work and stops the crowding out of local businesses that can not compete with public sector pay.”

And in case anyone was in any doubt that this new policy would apply to the likes of nurses, teachers and the police as well, the release explained: “This could save up to £8.8 billion per year. This is the potential savings if the system were to be adopted for all public sector workers in the long term.”

Unsurprisingly, this went down badly with Red Wall Tories like Ben Houchen, the party’s mayor in Tees Valley, who said: “There is simply no way you can do this without a massive pay cut for 5.5m people including nurses, police officers and our armed forces outside London.”

Experiencing the first serious mis-step of her leadership campaign, Truss later recorded a TV clip insisting that while her policy had been “misrepresented”, she was going to abandon it completely.

She said: “I never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses.

“But what I want to be clear about is I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards. That is no longer my policy.”

Rishi Sunak’s campaign, who have been on the back foot throughout the contest, wasted no time in taking advantage of their rival’s humiliation.

Pointing out that Truss had supported regional pay boards four years ago when she was chief secretary to the Treasury (CST), a source on Team Rishi said: “This wasn’t a mistake, Liz wanted this in 2018 as CST. The lady is for turning.”

That last sentence, echoing a famous line in one of Margaret Thatcher’s party conference speeches, was designed to twist the knife.

It’s far too early to say Truss’s mistake means the outcome of the leadership contest is back in the balance. She remains the clear favourite to succeed Boris Johnson.

But she’ll know better than anyone that any further slip-ups could be fatal to her hopes of entering Number 10.

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Russia Strikes Ukrainian Port Of Odessa — Just Days After Signing Grain Deal

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Russia has struck the Ukrainian port of Odessa just a day after the two countries signed a landmark deal to allow grain exports out of the war-torn country.

Two Russian cruise missiles hit the port’s infrastructure on Saturday, while Ukraine’s air defences brought down two others missiles.

Odessa’s regional governor, Maksym Marchenko, said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.

Russia has admitted responsibility for the strike, saying the missiles “destroyed a military infrastructure target” at the port.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s actions and said “the invaders can no longer deceive anyone”.

And Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said: “It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesa’s port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the UN and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement.

“In case of non-fulfilment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.”

The attack was also condemned in the UK, with foreign secretary Liz Truss branding it “absolutely appalling”.

“It is absolutely appalling that only a day after striking this deal, Vladimir Putin has launched a completely unwarranted attack on Odessa,” she said.

“It shows that not a word he says can be trusted.”

The strike came just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed a deal to allow grain exports to continue through the Black Sea in a move the UN described as a “beacon of hope” for ending the global food crisis.

The war in Ukraine — which supplies much of the world with products such as wheat and corn — has halted Ukrainian sea shipments and caused grain prices to rise dramatically.

Under the deal signed on Friday, a path opened for significant volumes of commercial food to leave the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.

A key element of the deal was the agreement by both Russia and Ukraine that there would be no attacks on any of the vessels.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack cast serious doubt on Russia’s commitment to the deal and warned of a deepening of the global food crisis.

“Russia must stop its aggression and fully implement the grain deal to which it has agreed,” he said.

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, also denounced the strike “outrageous” and accused the the Kremlin of “weaponising” food.

“Russia must be held to account.”

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Liz Truss Pledges To Strike Rwanda-Style Deportation Deals With Other Countries

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Liz Truss has vowed to deport more migrants if she is elected prime minister.

The foreign secretary said she would strike more Rwanda-style deportation deals in a bid to halt small boats bringing illegal immigrants from France.

Truss, who is battling it out against Rishi Sunak for Boris Johnson’s job, also vowed to bolster Border Force staff by 20 per cent in a bid to deter people from crossing the Channel.

The pledges come as the leadership rivals struck a hard-line tone on immigration in a bid to win over Tory party members, who will pick their favourite for PM, with the result announced on September 5.

Sunak said he would give MPs control over who comes to the UK by creating an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted each year.

Both candidates have backed Priti Patel’s controversial policy of sending migrants to Rwanda, with Truss saying she would extend it to other countries.

Truss said: “We need to break the cycle of these appalling gangs and stop people taking dangerous journeys across the channel.

“As prime minister, I am determined to see the Rwanda policy through to full implementation as well as exploring other countries where we can work on similar partnerships.

“I’ll make sure we have the right levels of force and protection at our borders. I will not cower to the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights] and its continued efforts to try and control immigration policy.”

Sunak said he will do “whatever it takes” to make the Rwanda scheme work, arguing that the UK’s current immigration system is “broken” and “chaotic”.

Also included in Truss’s policy pitch are plans to double Border Force Maritime staffing levels so that more Channel patrols can take place, as well as appointing a new Home Office minister to oversee the Border Force.

A source close to Truss said: “As foreign secretary, Liz worked closely with Priti Patel to formulate the generation-defining Rwanda policy.

“As prime minister she will do whatever it takes to protect our borders. She’s been frustrated with the ECHR and its mission creep. She is prepared to take a tougher stance and deliver the reforms required so the ECHR works for Britain.”

Sunak sought to match Truss on immigration with a 10-point plan that includes a commitment to a more narrow definition of who qualifies for asylum compared with that offered by the ECHR.

The plan will also give the government enhanced powers to detail, tag and monitor illegal migrants.

Sunak said: “Our immigration system is broken and we have to be honest about that. Whether you believe that migration should be high or low, we can all agree that it should be legal and controlled.

“Right now the system is chaotic, with law-abiding citizens seeing boats full of illegal immigrants coming from the safe country of France with our sailors and coastguards seemingly powerless to stop them.

“It must stop, and if I am prime minister I will stop it.”

Sunak said he would immediately work with French president Emmanuel Macron to find a solution to small boat crossings, including through a new cross-government taskforce.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Sunak said: “The ECHR cannot inhibit our ability to properly control our borders and we shouldn’t let it. We need to inject a healthy dose of common sense into the system, and that is what my plan does.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the pair’s plans and said it risked wasting £120m of taxpayer money if it is ruled unlawful by courts.

The first deportation flight was grounded in June after a series of legal challenges were lodged, with more expected to be filed in due course.

Cooper said: “The Conservatives have been in power for 12 years. It beggars belief that they claim to be the ones to sort things out when they have both failed for so long.”

The shift on to immigration comes after Sunak and Truss repeatedly clashed over economic policy.

Truss has vowed to cut taxes “from day one” if she replaces Johnson and has said she would immediately scrap Sunak’s increase in national insurance, which she argued was strangling growth and hitting families already hard-pressed by the cost of living crisis.

Sunak retaliated by branding her tax-cutting plans as “immoral” and a “fairytale”. He said he will only cut tax when inflation — currently running at 9.4 per cent — was under control.

Over the next six weeks, Truss and Sunak will take part in a number of hustings across the country in a bid to woo Tory party members.

Polling from YouGov last week gave Truss a 24-point lead over Sunak among Tory party members.

However, new polling from Opinium put Sunak slightly ahead of his rival among all voters on the question of who would make the better prime minister.

Forty-three per cent of the 2,000 adults surveyed said Sunak would make a good prime minister, compared with 36 per cent for Truss.

The two will go head-to-head in a televised BBC debate on Monday, with The Sun and Talk TV staging another on Tuesday.

Sky News will then host another debate on August 4.

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Rishi Sunak Says Liz Truss’s Plans To Cut Taxes Immediately Are ‘Immoral’

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Liz Truss’s plans to cut taxes immediately if she becomes prime minister are “immoral”, Rishi Sunak has said.

In a major ramping up of his attacks on his Tory leadership rival, the former chancellor said the move would require the government to borrow “tens and tens and tens of billions of pounds”, which would have to be repaid by future generations.

He also said he was the “underdog” in the contest and said the “forces that be” want Truss to win.

Sunak made his comments while addressing supporters in Grantham, the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher.

Truss has pledged to reverse the rise in national insurance payments and halt the planned increase in corporation tax – policies introduced by Sunak when he was chancellor.

She has insisted that the £30bn cost of the policies can he paid for from the fiscal “headroom” in the economy.

But Sunak said: “I do believe that it is the wrong approach for the government at this moment to be borrowing an extra tens and tens and tens of billions of pounds at a time when inflation is rising to almost double digits and interest rates are already on the rise.”

He added: “Not only do I think it’s the wrong thing for the economy, I do also believe that it’s immoral because there is nothing noble or good about wracking up bills on the country’s credit card that we then pass on to our children and grandchildren.”

Suggesting that Truss was misleading voters, the former chancellor said: “We can cut more taxes, but only if we defeat the enemy of inflation and that can only happen if we are honest about the ravages it causes.

“We must see the danger in front of us and act – not pretend like it isn’t happening or, more dreadful still, make the situation worse, putting people’s homes and savings at risk.

“I will deliver a lower tax economy, I will deliver tax cuts, but tax cuts you can believe in. I will make that happen.”

The most recent opinion poll of Tory party members – who will decide who succeeds Boris Johnson – suggested Truss is 24 points ahead of her rival.

Sunak said: “Be in no doubt, I am the underdog. The forces that be want this to be a coronation for the other candidate.”

Responding to his comments, a spokesperson for Truss said: “Liz‘s plans for tax cuts will reward people for their hard work and effort, allowing them to keep more of their hard-earned money.

“You cannot tax your way to growth. We have the highest tax burden since the 1940s and as prime minister Liz will take immediate action to prioritise growth and cut taxes.

“We can’t continue with a business-as-usual approach on the economy that is failing to deliver for the British people.”

Chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke, who used to work under Sunak when he was chancellor, also hit out at his former boss, accusing him on Twitter of engaging in “project fear”.

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Liz Truss’s Economic Guru Says Her Tax Plans Will Send Interest Rates Soaring

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Liz Truss’s plans to cut taxes would lead to interest rates rising to up to seven per cent, according to her economic guru.

Professor Patrick Minford said higher rates – which would send monthly mortgage repayments soaring – were “a good thing” for the economy.

At the moment, the Bank of England interest rate is 1.25 per cent.

Earlier this week, Truss said Minford supported her plans to reverse the increase in national insurance and halt a planned rise in corporation tax, despite warnings they could lead to higher inflation.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak, Truss’s rival for the Tory leadership, has insisted that taxes should only come down once inflation is under control.

But in an interview with The Times, Minford said: “If we raise corporation tax we’ll kill off growth.

“It’s crazy to try to begin getting the debt-to-GDP ratio down five minutes after Covid. Borrowing is actually something that allows you to pursue the right policies and not be blown off course by temporary shocks.”

On warnings that tax cuts will lead to higher interest rates to bring down inflation, he said: “Yes, interest rates have to go up and it’s a good thing.

“A normal level is more like 5-7 per cent and I don’t think it will be any bad thing if we got back to that level.”

Minford added: “If you’ve got incredibly low interest rates you kill off savings and create febrile markets with a lot of zombie companies surviving because it costs them nothing to borrow.

“It’s right that a healthy economy should have a decent interest rate. That’s certainly one thing I want to see.”

A Truss campaign source told The Times: “Patrick Minford has no formal involvement in Liz’s campaign.

“Liz’s absolute priority is tackling the cost of living and getting our economy growing faster. We can’t have business-as-usual economic policy.”

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Kemi Badenoch Becomes Latest Candidate To Exit The Tory Leadership Race

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Kemi Badenoch has been knocked out of the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader and prime minister.

The former frontbencher received the fewest votes of the four remaining candidates in the contest.

Rishi Sunak once again came out on top, with Penny Mordaunt retaining second place and Liz Truss staying in third spot.

Badenoch won the backing of 59 MPs, up just one from the last round.

Truss got 86, up 15 on the third ballot, Mordaunt was up 10 votes to 92, with Sunak up three to 118.

The fifth and final ballot of MPs will take place tomorrow.

The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes will go into the final run-off, with the winner being decided by the 200,000 Tory members and announced on September 5.

A spokesperson for Sunak’s campaign said: “Rishi has continued to progress today because he is the candidate with the clearest plan to restore trust, rebuild the economy, reunite the country and because he is best placed to beat Labour at the next election.

“Every poll shows only Rishi can beat Starmer, and is the candidate the public think would make the best PM.

“MPs are also recognizing that Rishi has the best experience and plans to deal with the current economic situation.

“Rishi will rebuild our economy by gripping inflation, so we can get our economy growing and unleash the full opportunities of post-Brexit Britain.”

Mordaunt said: “This afternoon colleagues once again put their trust in me and I cannot thank them enough. We are so nearly across the finish line. I am raring to go and excited to put my case to members across the country and win.

“I want to pay tribute to my friend Kemi Badenoch who electrified the leadership contest with her fresh thinking and bold policies.

“She and I both know that the old way of government isn’t working as it should. Voters want change and we owe it to them to offer a bold new vision for this country. Kemi’s passion for this showed and I’m glad she put herself forward to be heard.”

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Liz Truss Can’t Remember A Single Human Rights Issue She Has Raised With Gulf States

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Liz Truss has refused to name a single human rights issue she has raised with governments of a Gulf state.

The foreign secretary has said the UK must end “strategic dependence on authoritarian regimes for our energy”.

But the government has recently launched trade talks with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Appearing at the Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Truss was asked if she viewed the Gulf states as authoritarian.

“I would describe the Gulf states as partners of the UK,” she said. “Is every country that we work with exactly in line with UK policy on everything? No they are not. But they are important allies of the UK.”

Truss added human rights concerns were “raised regularly” with Gulf state leaders and ministers and said she had done so “personally”.

Labour MP Chris Bryant asked Truss to name the last human rights issue she had raised.

Liz Truss: “I’d have to come back to the committee on the precise timing of that.”

Chris Bryant: “Well tell us anything you have said on human rights?”

Truss: “I certainly have raised it.”

Bryant: “Go on, tell us one now.”

Truss: “I am just trying to remember my recent most visit. But I can assure you I have raised it and I will write to you with the dates.”

Bryant: “You can’t remember a single human rights issue you have raised with a Gulf state leader?”

Truss: “I have raised particular issues when I have been in the Gulf about human rights issues.”

Bryant: “Well name one?”

Truss: “I’m not going to go into all the details of private conversations which I will come back to in due course.”

The foreign secretary told the committee her focus was on the “number one” threat to the UK which was Russia.

She said: “We need to make sure we have alternative energy sources and one of the key sources of energy is the Gulf region. We are not dealing in a perfect world.”

Saudi Arabia recently executed 81 people in one day. Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s leader, also stands accused of approving the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, something the crown prince has denied.

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Tory MPs Trigger No Confidence Vote In Boris Johnson’s Leadership

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Boris Johnson is on the verge of being ousted as Conservative Party leader and prime minister, after the number of Tory MPs demanding he resign reached the threshold for a vote of no confidence.

Chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady has announced that 54 or more Tory MPs have requested a vote of confidence in the PM, triggering a leadership vote.

Tory MPs will vote this evening between 6pm and 8pm on whether they want Johnson to remain.

While plenty of Westminster insiders predict Johnson will survive the vote, the fact it has been called is damaging for the prime minister.

Brady said in a statement: “The threshold of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.

Sir Graham Brady making the announcement to camera
Sir Graham Brady making the announcement to camera

“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 6pm and 8pm today Monday June 6 — details to be confirmed.

“The votes will be counted immediately afterwards. An announcement will be made at a time to be advised. Arrangements for the announcement will be released later today.”

Speaking to journalists, Brady suggested some MPs had post dated their letters so the vote did not overshadow the Queen’s jubilee celebrations.

It comes after former minister Jesse Norman became the latest Tory MP to announce that he has submitted a letter calling for a confidence vote in Johnson.

Norman, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, said Johnson had presided over “a culture of casual law-breaking” in No.10 and that his claim to be vindicated by the Sue Gray report was “grotesque”.

In order to oust him, 180 MPs would have to vote against Johnson in the confidence vote.

However, the odds are in the PM’s favour with around 140 MPs on the “payroll” alone including ministers and aides.

Cabinet ministers have been lining up to declare their support for the prime minister.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss tweeted: “The prime minister has my 100 per cent backing in today’s vote and I strongly encourage colleagues to support him.

“He has delivered on covid recovery and supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. He has apologised for mistakes made. We must now focus on economic growth.”

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove added: “I’ll be voting for Boris this evening. The PM got the big decisions right on Brexit and Covid.

“We need to focus now on defending Ukraine, driving levelling-up and generating growth. We need to move past this moment and unite behind Boris to meet these challenges.”

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant said he thinks Johnson will win the vote no of confidence on Monday evening.

He told Times Radio: “I think he is going to win. I think that something like two-thirds of the party will vote to support him and I really do wonder why it’s happening at this time.”

A No.10 spokesperson said:“Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.

“The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force.”

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Liz Truss Refuses Four Times To Say Boris Johnson Won’t Scrap Trade Department

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