“Cometh the hour, cometh the woman.” It has been only 45 days (a shorter duration than the leadership contest that she won) since the Daily Mail celebrated Liz Truss becoming prime minister with that exultant front-page headline.
But its call for Truss to “stamp her mark on Britain” has not given Britain the hallmark of quality it hoped for. Here we cast an eye over how Truss went from flying high to a rapid death spiral.
5 September – wins Tory leadership contest
Truss beat Rishi Sunak to the position by a slimmer than expected margin, with 81,326 votes from Tory members to the former chancellor’s 60,399 (57.4% to 42.6%). About 172,000 people were eligible to vote in the final stage of the contest – or 0.3% of the UK electorate.
8 September – announces energy support package
Truss set out plans to freeze energy bills at an average of £2,500 a year for two years, one of the biggest government interventions since the 2008 financial crisis. Almost immediately, questions were asked about how she was costing a proposal that would give the richest families twice as much support as poorer households – questions she batted away.
The death of the Queen later that day, followed by 10 days of national mourning, then brought her premiership to a standstill.
23 September – mini-budget
Truss’s chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced the biggest tax cuts in 50 years – worth £45bn – without the usual independent costing from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Truss said it was a “fiscal event” rather than a budget, so the OBR did not need to be consulted.
It later emerged that Truss had not told the Bank of England about her tax plans. The huge increases in government borrowing sent sterling and British government bonds into freefall. The IMF called for a reversal in policy and the Bank of England had to urgently buy up to £65bn of gilts to protect pension funds that were teetering on the brink of collapse.
29 September – sticking to her plan
Truss broke her silence in a bruising set of local radio interviews prior to the Tory conference. She insisted urgent action had been vital to “get the economy moving”.
No more details would be given on how the tax cuts would be funded until 23 November. Unreassured, the markets reacted strongly, indicating that interest rates would have to rise significantly, leading in turn to jumps in mortgage rates and lenders pulling many deals.
3 October – U-turn on top rate of tax
Truss and Kwarteng were forced to reverse their planned cut after howls of indignation from their party, the opposition and the public. Kwarteng said the plan to abolish the 45% top rate of income tax had become “a distraction”.
10 October – Kwarteng brings forward budget date
Under pressure to rebuild shattered investor confidence in the government’s economic agenda, Kwarteng brought forward the publication date for fiscal plans and economic forecasts from 23 November to 31 October.
The next day, the Bank of England expanded its programme of daily bond purchases to include inflation-linked debt, citing a “material risk” to British financial stability and “the prospect of self-reinforcing ‘fire sale’ dynamics”. It set a hard deadline of three days before it withdrew support.
12 October – no plans to reverse tax cuts
Truss again responded to the news that British government borrowing costs had hit a 20-year high by saying she would not reverse her tax cuts or reduce public spending.
14 October – sacks Kwarteng and makes U-turn on corporation tax
He was one of her closest friends and oldest political allies, but Truss blindsided Kwarteng by asking him to fly back early from a trip to the US to be sacked and replaced by Jeremy Hunt.
The sacrifice did not have the desired effect, however, even when paired with an acknowledgment that she had gone “further and faster” than investors were expecting. A raft of reversals then followed: corporation tax rising to 25%, despite an earlier plan to freeze it at 19%, and an admission that public spending would have to grow less rapidly than previously planned, despite a pledge that there would be no return to austerity.
But that left Hunt still needing to find public spending cuts of about £40bn to balance the books. With the Bank of England warning UK borrowers that they would face higher interest rates as a result of Truss’s decisions, the prime minister failed to appease the markets and just three days later …
17 October – Hunt reverses most of mini-budget
In one of the most astonishing U-turns in modern political history, Hunt shredded not just most of Kwarteng’s planned tax cuts but the government’s entire growth strategy – and made it clear there would be “eye-wateringly” painful spending cuts in the next mini-budget, on Halloween.
18 October – ‘in office but not in power’
“Humiliated”, screamed the Mirror; “On a knife-edge’, said the Financial Times. The Daily Star’s global hit “Truss v Lettuce” live feed had her on “leaf support”.
Even the Daily Mail was now acknowledging her perilous position. The paper said Truss was warned that she was “in office but not in power” at her meeting with the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to discuss the scale of MPs’ anger.
Truss refused to guarantee the Tories’ manifesto pledge to commit to the triple lock on pensions, having backed it two weeks ago. Michael Gove said it was a matter of when and not if Truss was removed as prime minister.
19 October – ‘a fighter not a quitter’
Truss made another U-turn by promising to keep the pensions triple lock, and endured a mauling from Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions. She claimed she was a “fighter not a quitter”, but Suella Braverman published a brutal resignation letter after being forced to step down as home secretary.
In the evening, the Commons descended into mayhem: MPs allege ministers physically pulled some wavering Tories into the voting lobbies while the whips shared a foul-mouthed exchange during a vote on fracking.
20 October – quits
With 15 MPs publicly calling for her to go, Truss makes a statement at 1.30pm announcing her intention to resign.
