The historian turns Liz Truss’s 49-day tenure into a textbook on bad government, writes former Conservative MP Dominic Grieve
I have to start this review by declaring an interest. As a former Conservative MP, expelled from the party for standing as an independent in 2019, I had, apart from that election, never campaigned against a Conservative candidate. In June this year, however, I made the decision to support the independent James Bagge (another former Conservative), who stood against Liz Truss in South West Norfolk. His intervention, as a former member of her Conservative Association, helped overturn one of the largest Conservative majorities in the country – he secured more than 6,000 votes. My reason for doing this was that I thought it wrong for a former prime minister who had done so much damage, albeit unintentionally, to our country’s economic wellbeing and reputation to stand again. As was clear on the ground during the campaign and in its outcome, this was also the view of her constituents.
Anthony Seldon, now with the help of Jonathan Meakin, has become the leading authority on our contemporary prime ministers and the challenges they face in office. So, it was natural that after last year’s Johnson at 10, he would want to consider Truss. The problem, however, is that 49 days provides rather thin material for a book, as does any account of the steps that got her there. Truss’s personal background and prior political career are covered quickly, in about 12 pages out of 330. Seldon identifies her core belief as being free market liberalism with a deep suspicion of entrenched vested interests. He sees her as an autodidact. He says that “Truss zipped up the ministerial ladder. But she never felt particularly successful on the rungs, nor was she to win many admirers for her pirouettes as she reached the top.”
