Liz Truss: ‘Maybe I should have listened to the Queen’
49-day PM says the late monarch advised her to ‘pace yourself’
QUEEN Elizabeth offered new Prime Minister Liz Truss pearls of wisdom days before her death – which the shortest serving premier ignored – her memoir reveals.
When the pair met, two days before the Queen passed away at Balmoral, the monarch advised her 15th PM to “pace yourself”. It was something Tory Ms Truss failed to do, sparking economic chaos.
In the weeks that followed, Ms Truss unveiled a mini-Budget consisting of £45billion of unfunded tax cuts that triggered a domestic financial crisis and the end of her tenure as head of the Government.
The pound spiralled to its lowest rate against the dollar, the Bank of England had to spend heavily to stop a meltdown in the bond market, while mortgage rates and borrowing costs soared.
Conservative MPs swiftly turned on Ms Truss and she was forced to resign after just 49 days in office, making her the shortest serving prime minister.
In her new book, Ten Years To Save The West, Ms Truss writes, “maybe I should have listened” to the Queen.
As well as giving a fresh take on her historic encounter with Britain’s longest serving monarch, the 48-year-old MP for South West Norfolk and hard-Right champion staunchly defends her political views.
The late Queen welcomed Ms Truss to her Scottish bolthole Balmoral on September 6, 2022, in what would be the monarch’s final engagement before her death just two days later.
Ms Truss says the 96-year-old Queen “seemed to have grown frailer” since she had last been in the public eye, but was still on top form mentally.
She writes: “We spent around 20 minutes discussing politics. She was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty.
“Towards the end of our discussion, she warned me that being Prime Minister is incredibly ageing.
“She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.’ Maybe I should have listened.”
Previously, the former Tory leader said the Queen was “absolutely determined to do her duty” when the monarch confirmed her as the new British premier.
Upbeat
She said: “She was absolutely on top of what was happening and very, very, keen to reassure me we would be meeting again soon. I was obviously in the first few days of being Prime Minister and thinking about the many, many different things.
“But the assumption, absolutely, was this would be the first of many, many meetings.
“She was very determined to do her duty, and right to the end we had a very, very good meeting, and she was upbeat.”
Ten Years To Save The West will be published next Tuesday.