Ahead of her paperback release, Liz Truss issues a scathing attack on Rishi Sunak in the Mail
Claims he was “complicit in amplifying Labour’s lies and spreading smears about me and my premiership”
Dubs him “a creature of the Whitehall machine” and says he skipped key meetings
Says Sunak was “fundamentally dishonest about illegal immigration, taxes, growth and inflation”
Tory MPs didn’t remove him as “most.. shared his belief in the establishment narrative”
Adds of remaining MPs: “It wasn’t so much survival of the fittest as survival of the wettest”
In the extract Truss says the “bulk” of Conservative MPs were also party responsible for the party’s election defeat. She says:
When I left office and Rishi became leader in October 2022, Reform’s poll rating had been around the 3 per cent mark. By the time he called the election, they were consistently in double figures on around 12 per cent and were exceeding 14 per cent by polling day.
The blame for that lies entirely on Rishi’s shoulders. Instead of acknowledging the truth about the difficult state the country was in, he tried to press release his way to success. He was fundamentally dishonest about illegal immigration, taxes, growth and inflation.
Yet it needs to be acknowledged that this dishonesty was not limited to him. It was also reflected in the bulk of the parliamentary party. The reason Rishi was not removed by MPs when he was leading us to consistently disastrous poll ratings and a dire performance against his own targets is that most of them shared his belief in the establishment narrative. They fundamentally misunderstand Britain.
It is also why he has not been properly taken to task for the worst Conservative defeat in 200 years. The Conservative parliamentary party did not want to acknowledge their complicity in backing the status quo over the real change the country needed – and still needs.