The historic town of Downham Market in Liz Truss’s South West Norfolk constituency should be a personal bulwark in political crisis and economic turmoil. This weekend, confidence in the prime minister in her own Conservative heartland was ebbing away.
While officials in Downing Street contemplate whether Truss is now in her last days of office and MPs plot possible succession, the verdict on her record among the market stalls, coffee bars and busy shopping streets of the market town was harsh.
Sitting in the town’s Greggs bakery store, Ian Bond, 74, a retired engineering manager who was born in Downham Market, said he considered the mini-budget was “Black Friday” for the Conservative party.
“It’s been disastrous, especially for young people with mortgages and people trying to work out their finances each week to the pound,” he said. “She has lost credibility.”
One description kept popping up to sum up the new administration: shambles. The one consolation for Truss was that some people who spoke to the Observer said they could not face the prospect of another leader foisted on the country.
Sue Marchant, 67, who runs the Groovy Sue clothes stall in the market, said one sign of the cost of living crisis was a rise in demand for warmer clothes. “I am selling more clothes like big ponchos,” she said. “People are working from home and not turning the heating on.”
Marchant said Truss need to change her political style to survive: “It’s a hard job to run the country, and she needs to be more open. She should have stood up at her press conference and said: ‘Come on, bring it on.’”
Andrew Howe, 67, a retired headteacher, said Truss’s premiership had been a “litany of disasters”. He said: “It has been disastrous for the country, disastrous for the public services and disastrous if you are trying to buy a home.” He said he could not see her premiership lasting much longer.
Truss won the seat in May 2010 with a 13,140 majority. She had no Norfolk roots and was fiercely ambitious even by political standards. The South West Norfolk Conservatives website refers to her as the self-styled “disrupter in chief”. Those who don’t support her may also agree with that description.
At the Conservative club in Downham Market, there was a sombre mood on Saturday morning as members met for coffee, snacks and cold drinks and reflected on the PM’s plight.
Pat Seaman, 79, a retired carpet fitter sitting with a drink at a table, criticised the now scrapped policy to ditch the 45% tax rate for high earners.
He said: “It was totally wrong that she gave money to the top people. She didn’t do enough for people who can’t afford to put food on their plates.
“She is just not up to the job. I feel quite sad about it because the party is just falling apart. They need to regroup.”
A group of Conservative club members meeting for coffee said the party should unite to support her rather than plot to oust her. Tony Moss, 70, a retired farm manager, said: “I don’t think she should resign. I don’t see the point, but they need to bring in some people who know what they are doing.”
Marion Batt, 63, said: “It is easy to forget we have had Covid and the problems in Ukraine, but that is the crux of where this all started. We need everything to calm down.”
One member in the club, who asked not to be named, said: “I’ve met her and written to her on local issues. She’s a very good MP, but she’s very wooden to the public and her confidence has drained away.”
Truss is rarely seen in the town or the Conservative club. One resident joked he had seen her once in the run-up to an election and “thought it was a mirage”.
Richard Porritt, editor of the Eastern Daily Press, the regional morning newspaper for Norfolk, said Truss was a decent local MP but “quite distant” because of her ministerial roles. He said some in the constituency would have preferred a local candidate, adding: “If there is another Tory leader before we get to the next election, she will be something of a tragic figure because she absolutely believed in that mini-budget and that it was the right thing to do.
“There’s no doubt in my mind her premiership will be very short. She wasn’t willing to listen to anyone else and didn’t think she needed to. It was a massive gamble and she lost. Most Tories I speak to in the east of England think it’s a complete disaster and there’s no coming back from it.”
The cost of the economic crisis which was compounded by Truss’s mini-budget is a pressing concern for families in Downham Market. Shenna Eagle, 43, a part-time administrator who was enjoying a hot dog near the town square with her daughter Sienna, nine, said: “It’s very hard. All the prices are rising and I’m struggling with the energy bills.”
She said she did not want to see Truss resign. “I feel a bit sorry for her and feel she needs to be given more time,” she said. “It’s a tough job.”
