From advocating the abolition of the monarchy as a Liberal Democrat through to her excruciating U-turn on corporation tax, Liz Truss is no stranger to flip-flopping on political positions. Here are just some of those changing views.
Nuclear weapons
Politicians can surely be forgiven for changing the values they held when they were younger, such as in the case of Truss’s apparently enthusiastic support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, whose marches she had joined with her mother.
What has never been clear, however, is the point at which she changed her view to the extent that she said she was “ready to do that” when asked during the Conservative leadership race if she was ready to push the button, even if it meant global annihilation.
Abolishing the monarchy
As a teenager, Truss spoke passionately at the Lib Dems’ 1994 conference in favour of a motion to abolish the monarchy, telling delegates: “We do not believe people are born to rule.”
Asked by reporters on the Tory leadership campaign trail when she had changed her mind, Truss responded with a smile: “Almost immediately after I’d made that speech.”
Brexit
As a member of David Cameron’s government, Truss campaigned for remain during the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. She said part of the reason she wanted the UK to remain in the EU was for the benefit of her daughters, then aged 10 and seven.
“I was wrong and I am prepared to admit I was wrong,” she said subsequently, adding that some of the “portents of doom” were never unleashed.
Protecting the UK’s steel industry
As international trade secretary, Truss had wanted to drop tariffs on some types of imported steel as part of a plan to reduce trade barriers. She faced opposition from the UK steel industry, which predicted her proposals would cost thousands of jobs.
She dropped the plans after losing out to the counter-argument put forward by the then business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Cutting wages outside London
Truss was forced during the Tory leadership campaign to U-turn on plans to cut civil service pay outside London after an outcry from Conservative MPs and the Conservative Tees Valley mayor.
It was the Truss campaign’s first major gaffe, with one supporter of her rival Rishi Sunak calling it her “dementia tax moment”, referencing the time the former Tory prime minister Theresa May was forced to U-turn on her social care policy.
Cost of living ‘handouts’
Truss was accused of making a second significant U-turn within a week during her leadership campaign after her staff tried to play down suggestions there would be no “handouts” to help millions of struggling people through a worsening cost of living crisis.
The row was over an interview she gave to the Financial Times in which she said she would “look at what more can be done” in the light of warnings from the Bank of England about a 15-month recession and double-digit inflation lasting well into 2023. She added: “The way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts.”
Energy-saving tips
Truss had ignored her own climate advisers in opposing an energy-saving campaign this winter, it emerged at the weekend, as one of her ministers said a public information scheme to help people reduce energy bills was pulled on the grounds of cost.
Yet in an apparent row-back in the face of opposition from her own MPs, the prime minister said last week the government was working on a plan to help individuals and businesses use energy more efficiently.
Treasury permanent secretary
A veteran mandarin was appointed as Treasury’s top civil servant on Monday after Truss backtracked on her plans to bring in an “outsider” as part of attempts to “shake up” the ministry.
A Whitehall source confirmed the job had been offered to a different candidate, Antonia Romeo, an experienced permanent secretary but someone who was seen as a reformer who did not have Treasury experience.
Additional rate of tax
Truss’s government abandoned its plan to abolish the 45% top rate of income tax in a humiliating U-turn, after a growing Conservative revolt over the policy and a turbulent reaction from markets.
Announcing the decision in an early morning tweet on Monday 3 October, Kwarteng said: “We get it, and we have listened.”
The chancellor said the decision to cut tax for people on incomes of £150,000 or more had “become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country”.
Windfall tax
Renewable power companies will have their revenues capped in England and Wales, after Truss’s government bowed last week to pressure to clamp down on runaway profits.
The move provoked immediate accusations that No 10 had performed “another screeching U-turn”, having previously rejected calls to impose a windfall tax on power companies.
Corporation tax
Truss performed yet another U-turn in front of cameras during a brief Downing Street press conference on Friday 14 October, over her flagship plan to cut corporation tax.
In the government’s mini-budget, Kwarteng, the then chancellor, had said corporation tax would be frozen at 19%, scrapping a rise to 25% planned by his predecessor. Just hours after she fired Kwarteng, Truss said she had decided to stick with the rise, which would boost the public finances by £18bn.
Energy price guarantee
In early September, Truss announced that energy bills would be frozen at an average of £2,500 a year for two years for UK households, and that the government would fund the scheme to reduce the unit cost of energy through increased borrowing.
However, since becoming the new chancellor after Kwarteng’s sacking, Jeremy Hunt has U-turned on this policy, stating that the energy price freeze would last only for six months, until April 2023, instead of the original two years.
Income tax
The former chancellor’s mini-budget stated that the basic rate of income tax would be cut by 1p from April 2023, a year earlier than originally planned, taking the rate down to 19%.
But since becoming chancellor, Hunt has also U-turned on this policy, stating that the basic rate of income tax will remain at 20% and do so “indefinitely” until economic circumstances allow it to be cut.
He said it was a “deeply held Conservative value” that people should keep more of the money they earn but that financial markets were “rightly demanding commitment to sustainable public finances”.
Cuts to public spending
In her first PMQs since the former chancellor’s mini-budget, Truss pledged not to cut public spending, saying that she was “absolutely” not planning any public spending reductions.
However, since becoming the new chancellor, Hunt has again negated Truss’ pledge, stating that there will be “more difficult decisions” on tax and spending to come, and that some areas of public spending will need to be cut.
