Energy plan on day one for Truss
Tory leadership favourite aims to prioritise tackling cost of living crisis in first Cabinet
LIZ TRUSS is considering setting out her plans to tackle the energy crisis to ministers within 24 hours of taking office.
The Daily Telegraph understands that plans are in place for Ms Truss, who is expected to win the Tory leadership race, to hold her first Cabinet on Wednesday morning. Allies believe she will use the occasion to lay out her priorities for tackling mounting bills.
It came after Russia announced it was delaying the resumption of its Nord Stream 1 gas line, provoking fresh concerns about energy prices.
The Foreign Secretary has pledged to deliver a financial statement within two weeks of taking office, but pressure is building for her to unveil help sooner.
Voting closed in the Tory leadership race yesterday at 5pm, with Ms Truss the clear favourite to defeat Rishi Sunak and be announced as the next prime minister. She has spent the last week drawing up plans to deal with the energy crisis, which are expected to include a possible VAT cut and an end to the moratorium on fracking.
One of her priorities in the first few days is expected to be reversing the rise in National Insurance to put more money into families’ pockets. She has also pledged to crack down on strikes by imposing new minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure.
One ally said it was likely that Ms Truss’s first Cabinet would take place on Wednesday morning, and that plans to deal with the energy crisis would be discussed.
“Liz will be well prepared, as the Civil Service has devoted a lot of time over the summer to an orderly transition so that she will be able to take over immediately if she wins,” the ally said.
“The transition planning has been very good – better than it was before Boris Johnson took over.”
The Foreign Secretary’s allies are, however, keen to stress she has not yet won the leadership contest.
The victor in the Conservative leadership race will be announced by Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, at 12.30pm on Monday, with the candidates only finding out 10 minutes beforehand.
The new Conservative leader will take office a day later at an audience with the Queen at Balmoral.
After returning to Downing Street at around 4pm, the new prime minister will spend the afternoon and evening assembling their Cabinet.
If Ms Truss wins, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is predicted to become chancellor.
It is understood that Ms Truss is also planning to appoint a new deputy prime minister. Dominic Raab is in that role at present, but he is not expected to remain a member of the Cabinet.
Yesterday, Nadhim Zahawi, who is tipped for a role in Ms Truss’s Cabinet, said that she will have to face down Treasury bureaucrats to drive through economic reforms and tackle the cost of living crisis.
Speaking at an event held by the Policy Exchange think tank, the Chancellor said: “Far too much of what happens is that we make a decision and then there’s a bunch of hurdles put in the way for delivery.
“When we make a decision at Cabinet, I think the role of the Treasury should be the enabler, it should lean in and drive the policy.”
There are no plans for Ms Truss to embark on a tour of the country if she is victorious, with the priority being a focus on economic policy and fixing issues people care about.
Last night, the Foreign Secretary pledged to “never let anyone talk us down” if she is elected Tory leader, and will “do everything in my power to make sure our great nation succeeds”.
Ms Truss said: “I believe in a brighter and better future for Britain.
“I have a bold plan that will grow our economy and deliver higher wages, more security for families and worldclass public services.”
Britain’s long, hot summer is slowly coming to an end and as it does so, so too does the Conservative Party leadership election. The polls closed yesterday at 5pm and on Monday, as MPS return to Westminster, they will learn the identity of the new Tory leader.
With the contest appearing all but settled for many weeks now, particularly as so many members will have voted early, it is not unwarranted to ask whether the best part of two months was necessary for it to come to a conclusion. MPS need little reminding that this country faces multiple crises – yet the search for solutions has effectively been put on hold while the outgoing government has drifted through its dog days unable to make major policy changes.
Nevertheless, those, like Sir John Major, who called for MPS alone to decide the identity of the next prime minister have been proved wrong. That path was taken in 2016 and led to the disastrous premiership of Theresa May. This contest, elongated as it has been, has not only exposed Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to a necessary grilling but has demonstrated the undeniable desire in the country for radical change.
There is a clear determination among the public that the most essential of our national institutions are not working as they should. From tax, water and energy to railways, unions, and the NHS, Britain is a state in need of remaking.
Had Sir John been listened to, the United Kingdom would already be several weeks into a Sunak premiership predicated on the basis of continuity and yet more failed Treasury orthodoxy. Instead, both candidates have been encouraged by an eager electorate to reach for new, untested and promising ideas.
Now that the contest is over and the need for unorthodox thinking firmly established, the time has come for action. Assuming that it is indeed Ms Truss who walks into No10 on Tuesday, she will do so with little time to steer the ship of state away from disaster.
In many ways, this summer has been a phoney war. Businesses, without an energy price cap of their own, are already facing harsh reality. However, the true pain will only come when households open their first autumn bills.
Likewise, we are warned that the NHS is in its most parlous state ever, and yet the inevitable winter surge is yet to come.
Ms Truss will face a series of rolling crises, each one a Gordian knot of complexity, and all the while the requirement to hold an election by January 2025 will loom on the horizon.
Certain problems will need to be addressed with urgency. There cannot be any delay in creating a plan for the energy crisis. Tax changes, too, should be undertaken post-haste.
Other issues, however, will quickly force their way to the top of the Downing Street in-tray. Continued industrial action threatens to coalesce into a co-ordinated general strike in the late autumn. With Britain’s excess deaths already troublingly high, attention will inevitably fall on the dire state of the NHS and the impossibility of getting a GP appointment as winter sets in and demand for health care rises.
Much as the Opposition wishes it were true, these problems cannot simply be solved by throwing money at them. As Lord Frost has argued in these pages, there are trade-offs to any policy and the public should be trusted to confront them. Nowhere is this more obvious than the thorny problem of energy. Massive government action will load yet more unsustainable debt onto future generations while further fuelling inflation today. Increasing taxes to fund largesse would be to give with one hand while taking away with the other. Taking no action could force millions into destitution, push the middle classes into precariousness and bankrupt businesses up and down the country. For all that this country faces a painful winter, there is, too, an opportunity. It is in times of crises that radical reform becomes most palatable. The desire for change among the public is obvious; now is the time for the new prime minister to deliver it and, in doing so, lay the groundwork for a wealthier country and a renewed Conservative majority.
Such action will not be easy. Ms Truss will face the inescapable burden of Civil Service inertia, while it must not be forgotten that a majority of her colleagues in the parliamentary party did not choose her as their candidate. She must unite a fractious party and use all her political guile to force reform on an unwilling system. If she succeeds, Britain and the Conservatives will emerge stronger than ever. Failure does not bear thinking about.