Liz Truss had a question for Anthony Seldon when he bumped into her at last year’s Spectator summer party. “Why are you writing a book about me?” she demanded to know. I’m sure many of us would share her wonderment. For almost 200 years the dubious distinction of being our shortest-serving prime minister belonged to George Canning, whose 119-day tenure was ended by the grim reaper. The only thing that died at the end of Truss’s 49 days (starting on 6 September 2022) was the Tories’ reputation for economic competence, although it’s fair to say it had been on life support for a while. The chaotic Conservative leadership changes in the summer of 2022 had produced new records for ministerial impermanence; an education secretary lasting for 36 hours; Grant Shapps as home secretary for six days. Truss may not have outlasted the Daily Star’s famous wilting lettuce but, just as she qualifies for a lifetime of close protection and annual gatherings at the Cenotaph, like all contemporary prime ministers, she gets an Anthony Seldon book on her time in office.
A short one, you would have thought. The scaffolding for this flimsy construction consists of 10 commandments that Seldon drew up in 2021 to analyse the perils of a leadership role he’s been writing about for 40 years. The Truss premiership is judged under chapter headings such as Command the Big Events, Maintain a Reputation for Economic Competence and Avoid U-turns. As you can imagine, she struggles a bit on all of them, hence the subtitle How Not to Be Prime Minister.
