Liz Truss’s attempt to reset the Conservative party by jettisoning the agenda of the previous regime is failing because of her political incompetence and the absence of a popular mandate. The latter has been skilfully exploited by the former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove to try to salvage some of the 2019 manifesto, which aspired to level up poorer areas. Mr Gove will wear a feather in his cap after Suella Braverman, the home secretary, singled him out in as a ringleader of a “coup” that forced Ms Truss to drop plans to cut the 45% tax rate for the rich.
No prime minister has the privilege to say what a general election meant if they have not won one. The Tories achieved their majority with promises of getting Brexit done, rebuilding the NHS and tackling regional inequality. Those promises succeeded in creating a new coalition of traditional Conservative supporters and former Labour voters. However, the mess over the Northern Ireland protocol is evidence that Brexit is far from over; the NHS is in crisis; and the obituaries are being prepared for the levelling up agenda. These failures were framed by Ms Truss to suggest that a clean break was needed. Mr Gove has reanimated opposition to this project by calling for “additional resources” to level up the country, despite the government’s budgetary squeeze.
The trouble for the leadership is that where Mr Gove has led, others are following for fear of being left behind by public opinion. On Tuesday, Ms Truss refused to commit to a pledge made by her predecessor, Boris Johnson, that benefits would rise in line with inflation rather than earnings. Mr Gove is right to say that the promise should be kept. Ms Truss’s tin-eared argument is that, in a cost of living crisis, pensioners should get an inflation-matching boost because they can’t increase their incomes, while those on benefits could “work” to deal with rising prices. But the public wants the government to spend large amounts of money to help the poor. Going against the country’s mood risks open rebellion in cabinet. No government could survive such an insurrection.
Ms Truss’s failure to grasp what is happening with the country in terms of inequality lies at the heart of her political ineptitude. That is what links both real-terms benefit cuts and levelling up. Britain is more geographically unequal than any other big rich country. Outside London and the south-east (and Edinburgh’s environs) lies a country where wages, literacy and life expectancy are lower, and unemployment and rates of illness higher. The previous government’s blueprint for levelling up Britain, released earlier this year, fell far short in terms of cash and devolving power. But however inadequate the proposed solutions, it was attempting to think through issues of place, community and inequality. To that extent, it was in tune with the times in a way that its successor manifestly is not.
Mr Gove, one of politics’ natural disrupters, is a dangerous enemy for Ms Truss to have. The Guardian has disagreed with his politics on many previous occasions – above all in relation to his catalysing role in Brexit. But he is doing the right thing for Britain by reminding Ms Truss that when voters are scared about rising energy bills and mortgage costs, she may have to go to the country if she wants to drastically change direction. In 2019, Britain did not vote for what she is offering.
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