ONE former Foreign Secretary,

lord owen (1977-79), had words of warning for those in Parliament refusing to take our leader-in-waiting seriously.

‘It will be a terrible mistake to underestimate liz Truss,’ he tells me. ‘I made that mistake with Margaret Thatcher. When I was Foreign Secretary and she was leader of the opposition she came to see me to talk about Africa. I thought she was an absolute lightweight. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I will not make that mistake with liz Truss.’