Ministers to unleash whirlwind of policies as Truss attempts to make her mark
Liz Truss is planning to unleash a blitz of policies to tackle rocketing energy bills and ease the cost of living crisis after the Queen’s funeral tomorrow.
The prime minister is expected to pack two weeks’ worth of announcements into the four days between the Queen’s funeral tomorrow and before the Westminster Parliament breaks up for the conference season.
Truss has until the beginning of 2025 to call a general election and, according to her chief of
staff, Mark Fullbrook, she wants to “turn a two-year administration into a sevenyear administration”.
The prime minister, who will meet world leaders arriving for the state funeral, will fly to New York tomorrow night for the United Nations general assembly, her first foreign trip as PM.
There she will hold more talks with leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, whom she will attempt to repair relations with after she sparked controversy during the Conservative leadership contest by saying the “jury’s out” over whether Macron is a “friend or foe” of the UK.
On Wednesday, Truss will set out her vision for “global Britain” when she addresses the UN, hoping to making a better impression than Boris Johnson did last year, when he made references to Muppets character Kermit the Frog during a speech about climate change. Back in Britain on Wednesday, new Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg will outline a support package for businesses hit by rocketing energy bills. He may also re-examine the EU working time directive, which gives most employees a right to a 48-hour week.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey will announce her plans to tackle the crisis-hit NHS south of the border and navigate it through the winter.
An emergency miniBudget by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will then be delivered on Friday, when he will reveal how funding for the £2,500 energy price cap will be paid for.
It is expected to cost £100 billion but Truss has ruled out a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies.
Kwarteng is expected to carry out Truss’s leadership race pledges to reverse the recent rise in national insurance and ditch plans to raise corporation tax, which are expected to cost £30bn.
The Chancellor is also reviewing the current fiscal rule that debt should be on course to fall as a share of national income in 2024-25.
Controversially, Kwarteng is expected to push ahead with plans to scrap the cap on bankers’ bonuses, a move that has been
privately branded by some colleagues as “tone deaf” and “utterly toxic”.
A parliamentary business paper also suggests MPs will consider a motion on Thursday proposing the Commons returns from the conference recess early, on October 11.
Before the Queen’s funeral and the UN general assembly, Truss will today have her first head-tohead meetings with world leaders as prime minister as they travel to the UK for the Queen’s funeral.
She will meet Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau and Polish leader Andrzej Duda in Downing Street.
Truss previously met Biden as foreign secretary, but this will be their first inperson conversation since she became prime minister.
It will take place against a backdrop of disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol and difficulties working towards a trade deal with the White House.
The post-Brexit treaty is also likely to come up when she speaks to Martin, amid strained relations between the two countries over the trading arrangements.