Liz Truss

## Mary Elizabeth Truss

Leader of the Conservative Party:
 5 September 2022 - 24th October 2022

Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs:
15 September 2021 – 6 September 2022

Minister for Women and Equalities
10 September 2019 – 6 September 2022

Secretary of State for International Trade
24 July 2019 – 15 September 2021

President of the Board of Trade
24 July 2019 – 15 September 2021

Chief Secretary to the Treasury
11 June 2017 – 24 July 2019

Secretary of State for Justice
14 July 2016 – 11 June 2017

Lord Chancellor
14 July 2016 – 11 June 2017

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
15 July 2014 – 14 July 2016

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education

4 September 2012 – 15 July 2014

**Mary Elizabeth Truss** (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who has served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom since 6 September 2022. She announced her resignation as prime minister on 20 October 2022, after 44 days in office, but will continue to serve until a successor is chosen. She also announced her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on the same day. She had previously held various Cabinet offices under prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, most recently as foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022. Truss has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Norfolk since 2010.

Truss attended Merton College, Oxford, and was the president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats. In 1996, she joined the Conservative Party. She worked at Shell and Cable & Wireless, and was deputy director of the think tank Reform. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, she was elected as the MP for South West Norfolk at the 2010 general election. As a backbencher, she called for reform in several policy areas including childcare, mathematics education and the economy. She founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and wrote or co-wrote a number of papers and books, including *After the Coalition* (2011) and *Britannia Unchained* (2012).

Truss served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for childcare and education from 2012 to 2014, before Cameron appointed her secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs in the 2014 cabinet reshuffle. Although she supported the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union, she supported Brexit after the 2016 referendum result. After Cameron resigned in July 2016, May appointed Truss secretary of state for justice and lord chancellor, making her the first female lord chancellor in the office's thousand-year history. Following the 2017 general election, Truss was appointed chief secretary to the Treasury.

Following May's resignation in 2019, Truss supported Johnson's successful bid to become Conservative leader and prime minister, after which he appointed Truss as secretary of state for international trade and president of the Board of Trade. She took on the additional role of minister for women and equalities in September 2019. Promoted to foreign secretary by Johnson in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed the government's chief negotiator with the European Union and the United Kingdom's chair of the EU–UK Partnership Council in December 2021, and was involved in the UK's response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Truss won the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election following Johnson's resignation amid a government crisis. She became prime minister amid an ongoing cost of living crisis and an energy supply crisis. In response, her government implemented an Energy Price Guarantee limiting energy prices for households, businesses and public sector organisations. Truss announced large-scale borrowing and various tax cuts in a mini-budget, which was poorly received and largely reversed. Other than the mini-budget, her time in office saw the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II.

On 20 October 2022, amid a continuing political crisis, Truss announced her intention to resign as prime minister, after 44 days in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

## Early life

Mary Elizabeth Truss was born on 26 July 1975 in Oxford, England, to Professor John Kenneth Truss and Priscilla Truss (née Grasby). She has three younger brothers Chris, Patrick and Francis. From an early age, she has been known by her middle name. Her father is an emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds while her mother was a nurse, teacher and member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Truss has described her parents as being "to the left of Labour". When Truss later stood for election to Parliament as a Conservative, her mother agreed to campaign for her, while her father declined to do so. Truss's parents divorced in 2003; at the 2004 Leeds City Council election, her mother unsuccessfully stood for election as a Liberal Democrat.

The family moved to Paisley, Renfrewshire, in Scotland when she was four years old, living there from 1979 to 1985, with Truss attending West Primary School. She then attended Roundhay School, in the Roundhay area of Leeds, a school which she later claimed had "let down" children. Aged twelve, she spent a year in Burnaby, British Columbia, where she attended Parkcrest Elementary School while her father taught at Simon Fraser University. Truss has praised the coherent curriculum, and the Canadian attitude that it was "really good to be top of the class", which she contrasts to her education at Roundhay School. Truss was remembered by adolescent classmates as a studious girl with "geeky" friends. She reportedly had an interest in social issues such as homelessness. She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1996.

Truss was active in the Liberal Democrats. She was president of Oxford University Liberal Democrats and a member of the national executive committee of Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). During her time as a Liberal Democrat, Truss supported the legalisation of cannabis and the abolition of the monarchy, and campaigned against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Truss joined the Conservative Party in 1996.

## Professional career

From 1996 to 2000, Truss worked for Shell, during which time she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA) in 1999. In 2000, Truss was employed by Cable & Wireless and rose to economic director before leaving in 2005.

After losing her first two elections, Truss became the full-time deputy director of Reform in January 2008, where she advocated more rigorous academic standards in schools, a greater focus on tackling serious and organised crime, and urgent action to deal with Britain's falling competitiveness. She co-authored *The Value of Mathematics*, *Fit for Purpose*, *A New Level*, and *Back To Black: Budget 2009 Paper*, among other reports.

## Political career

Truss served as the chair of the Lewisham Deptford Conservative Association from 1998 to 2000. Truss unsuccessfully contested the Greenwich London Borough Council elections in 1998 (for Vanbrugh ward) and 2002 (in Blackheath Westcombe). On 4 May 2006, she was elected as a councillor for Eltham South in the 2006 Greenwich London Borough Council election. Truss did not seek re-election to the council on 6 May 2010, with the 2010 general election being announced on 6 April 2010, the Dissolution of Parliament on 12 April 2010 and the last day to file MP nomination papers 20 April 2010.

### Parliamentary candidatures

At the 2001 general election, Truss stood for the constituency of Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, a safe seat for the Labour Party. She came a distant second, but increased the Conservative vote by 3.2%. Prior to the 2005 general election, the parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley, Sue Catling, was pressured to resign by the local Conservative Association, whereupon Truss was selected to fight the seat, which is also in West Yorkshire. Truss narrowly lost the election to the Labour Party incumbent.

Under David Cameron as Conservative leader, Truss was added to the party's "A List". In October 2009, she was selected for the South West Norfolk seat by members of the constituency Conservative Association. She won over 50% of the vote in the first round of the final against five other candidates. Shortly after her selection, some members of the constituency association objected to Truss's selection, due to her failing to declare a prior affair with the married Conservative MP Mark Field. A motion was proposed to terminate Truss's candidature, but this was defeated by 132 votes to 37 at a general meeting of the association's members three weeks later.

### Parliamentary career

Following her election to the House of Commons on 6 May 2010, Truss campaigned for issues including the retention of the RAF Tornado base at RAF Marham in her constituency; over seven months she asked 13 questions in the Commons about RAF Marham, secured a special debate on the subject, wrote dozens of letters to ministers and collected signatures on a petition which was delivered to Downing Street. From the start of her parliamentary career, she also lobbied for the dualling of the A11 west of Thetford; the work was completed in 2014. "With an eye on Thetford Forest, in her constituency, she spoke out against the proposal to sell off forests" and played "a leading role" in preventing a waste incinerator being built at King's Lynn. Her work to campaign for design improvements to road junctions in her constituency, notably the A47, led to her being named Road Safety Parliamentarian of the Month by the road safety charity Brake in January 2013.

In March 2011, Truss wrote a paper for the liberal think tank CentreForum in which she argued for an end to bias against serious academic subjects in the education system so that social mobility can be improved. Truss wrote a further paper for the same think tank in May 2012, in which she argued for change in the structure of the childcare market in Britain.

In October 2011, Truss founded the Free Enterprise Group, which has been supported by over 40 other Conservative MPs. In September 2011, together with four other members of the Free Enterprise Group, she had co-authored *After the Coalition*, a book which sought to challenge the consensus that Britain's economic decline is inevitable by arguing for the return of a more entrepreneurial and meritocratic culture.

*Britannia Unchained* was published on 13 September 2012 by the same authors as above. In Chapter 4, which is named "Work Ethic" (page 61), the book states: "Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor."  During a BBC leadership debate in July 2022, Truss said that the authors had each written a different chapter of the book and that Dominic Raab had written chapter 4 which contains those claims. Raab later remarked that the authors had taken "collective responsibility" for the book. As part of a serialisation in *The Daily Telegraph*, Truss wrote an article previewing *Britannia Unchained*. The book was promoted by its publishers as the work of "the Conservative Party's rising stars".

Truss has championed Britain following Germany's lead in allowing people to have tax-free and less heavily regulated "mini-jobs". Since Truss published a paper on the policy for the Free Enterprise Group in February 2012, the policy has been examined by the Treasury as a policy to promote growth.

Truss has campaigned for improved teaching of more rigorous school subjects, especially mathematics. She noted in 2012 that only 20% of British students studied maths to 18, and called for maths classes to be compulsory for all those in full-time education. Truss herself studied maths and further maths at A level. She argued in 2011 that comprehensive school pupils were being "mis-sold" easy, low-value subjects to boost school results: comprehensive school pupils were six times as likely to take media studies at A-level as privately educated pupils. Truss also criticised the over-reliance on calculators to the detriment of mental arithmetic.

From March 2011, she was a Member of the Justice Select Committee, remaining on the committee until her appointment as a government minister.

## Ministerial career

### Junior ministerial career (2012–2014)

On 4 September 2012, Truss was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, responsible for childcare and early learning, assessment, qualifications, curriculum reform, behaviour and attendance, and school food review. In this role, she developed some of the policy areas that she had pursued as a backbencher.

In January 2013, she announced proposals to reform A-Levels, by concentrating examinations at the end of two-year courses. She sought to improve British standards in maths for fear that children are falling behind those in Asian countries, and led a fact-finding visit to schools and teacher-training centres in Shanghai in February 2014 to see how children there have become the best in the world at maths.

Truss also outlined plans to reform childcare in England, which would overhaul childcare qualifications and increase the maximum number of children relative to adults in a care establishment, with the intention of widening the availability of childcare along with increasing pay and qualifications among staff. The proposed reforms were broadly welcomed by some organisations such as the charity 4Children, the Confederation of British Industry and the College of West Anglia. However, the proposals met opposition from others. The TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady and the then Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg were among those criticising the reforms, and were echoed by some parents and childcare bodies, such as the charity National Day Nurseries Association.

The columnist Polly Toynbee was highly critical of the minister's plans and challenged Truss to demonstrate how to care for two babies alongside four toddlers on her own. Truss responded to Toynbee's challenge by saying that being an early educator was a very demanding job, requiring great and specialist expertise, for which she was not trained. In the event, aspects of the reforms relating to relaxation of childcare ratios were blocked by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who said: "The response, not just from nurseries, but overwhelmingly from parent groups was they thought this was a bad idea."

### Environment Secretary (2014–2016)

In a 15 July 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Owen Paterson. In apparent contrast to her predecessor, Truss declared that she fully believed that climate change is happening, and that "human beings have contributed to that". She became a member of the Privy Council the next day.

In November 2014, Truss launched a new 10-year bee and pollinator strategy to try to reverse the trend of falling bee populations, including a strategy to revive traditional meadows which provide the most fertile habitat for pollinators. In July 2015, she approved the limited temporary lifting of an EU ban on the use of two neonicotinoid pesticides, enabling their use for 120 days on about 5% of England's oilseed rape crop to ward off the cabbage-stem flea beetle; campaigners in 2012 warned that pesticides were shown to harm bees by damaging their renowned ability to navigate home.

Truss cut taxpayer subsidies for solar panels on agricultural land, as her view was that the land could be better used to grow crops, food and vegetables. She described farming and food as "hotbeds of innovation" and promoted the production and export of British food.

In March 2015, she was one of two cabinet ministers to vote against the government's successful proposal to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, in what was technically a free vote.

### Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor (2016–2017)

On 14 July 2016, Truss was appointed as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in Theresa May's first ministry. Truss became the first woman to hold either position and the first female Lord Chancellor in the thousand-year history of the office. May's decision to appoint her was criticised by the then Minister of State for Justice Lord Faulks, who resigned from the government, questioning whether Truss would have the clout to be able to stand up to the Prime Minister when necessary, on behalf of the judges. Truss herself said that he did not contact her before going public with his criticism, and she had never met or spoken to him.

In November 2016, Truss was further criticised, including by the former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the Criminal Bar Association, for failing to support more robustly the judiciary and the principle of judicial independence, after three judges of the Divisional Court came under attack from politicians and from the *Daily Mail* for ruling against the government in *R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union*. Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, who had previously suggested that, like her immediate predecessors Chris Grayling and Michael Gove, Truss lacked the essential legal expertise that the constitution requires, called for her to be sacked as Justice Secretary as her perceived inadequate response "signals to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector".

Truss denied she had failed to defend the judges. "An independent judiciary is the cornerstone of the rule of law, vital to our constitution and freedoms", she wrote. "It is my duty as Lord Chancellor to defend that independence. I swore to do so under my oath of office. I take that very seriously, and I will always do so." She also said that the independent judiciary was robust enough to withstand attack by *The Daily Telegraph* and *Daily Mail*. However, in March 2017, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, told the House of Lords constitution select committee that Truss was "completely and utterly wrong" to say she could not criticise the media and reiterated the importance of protecting judges.

Following a significant rise in prison violence incidents in 2015 and 2016, in November 2016 Truss announced a £1.3 billion investment programme in the prison service and the recruitment of 2,500 additional prison officers, partly reversing the cuts made under the previous coalition government.

### Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2017–2019)

On 11 June 2017, following the general election, Truss was moved to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, attending the cabinet but not a full member of it, in what was seen by some as a demotion.

Truss developed an enthusiasm for cultivating her presence on Twitter and Instagram. *The Times* described this as an unorthodox approach that had won her fans. She was also closely involved in the launch of the free market campaign group, Freer. Some of her civil servants were reported as finding her tenure as Chief Secretary "exhausting", because of her demanding work schedule and her habit of asking officials multiplication questions at random intervals.

In June 2018, Truss gave a speech outlining her declared commitment to freedom and individual liberty. She criticised regulations that get in the way of people's lives and warned that raising taxes could see the Conservatives being "crushed" at the polls; in particular, she criticised ministerial colleagues who should, in her view, realise "that it's not macho just to demand more money. It's much tougher to demand better value and challenge the blob of vested interests within your department".

In 2019, Truss declared that she could be a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party to succeed May. However, she ultimately elected not to stand, and endorsed Boris Johnson.

### International Trade Secretary (2019–2021)

After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, Truss was tipped for promotion in return for her support during his leadership campaign, during which she advised Johnson on economic policy, and was the architect of plans to cut taxes for people earning over £50,000. Consequently, it was thought she would be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer or Business Secretary, but she was instead promoted to the position of Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed Minister for Women and Equalities.

Twice in September 2019, Truss said that the Department for International Trade had "inadvertently" allowed shipping of radio spares and an air cooler to Saudi Arabia in contravention of an order of the Court of Appeal, which found that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen were unlawful. While Truss apologised to a Commons committee on arms export controls, opposition MPs said her apology was insufficient and called for her to resign for breaking the law.

On 19 March 2020, Truss introduced to Parliament the Trade Act 2021, which established the legal framework for the UK to conduct trade deals with nations around the world.

On 7 July 2020, Truss announced the lifting of a year-long ban on the export of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia. She said that "there is not a clear risk that the export of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

In August 2020, meetings Truss held with the Institute of Economic Affairs were removed from the public record because they were recategorised as "personal discussions", which the Labour Party said raised concerns about integrity, transparency and honesty in public office.

Truss undertook negotiations for a post-Brexit free trade agreement between the UK and Japan. An agreement between the two countries was struck in September 2020, which Truss said would result in "99% of exports to Japan" being "tariff-free". It was the first major trade deal the UK had signed since leaving the European Union and was hailed as a "historic moment" by Truss; it mostly copied the existing trade deal the EU had agreed with Japan. This was followed by newly negotiated trade deals with Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

In December 2020, Truss made a speech on equality policy in which she stated that the UK focused too heavily on "fashionable" race, sexuality, and gender issues at the expense of poverty and geographical disparity. In the speech, she announced that the government and civil service would no longer be receiving unconscious bias training.

### Foreign Secretary (2021–2022)

On 15 September 2021 during a cabinet reshuffle, Johnson promoted Truss from International Trade Secretary to Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, thus becoming the second woman to hold the position after Margaret Beckett.

At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, she said that France had acted unacceptably during the Jersey fishing dispute.

In October 2021, she called on Russia to intervene in the Belarus–European Union border crisis and said she wanted a "closer trading and investment relationship" with the Gulf Cooperation Council which includes Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In November 2021, Truss and her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid announced a new decade-long deal aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In December 2021, she met her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Stockholm, urging Russia to seek peace in Ukraine.

On 5 November 2021, she called for a ceasefire in the Tigray War between Ethiopian rebel groups and the Ethiopian government led by Abiy Ahmed, saying that "there is no military solution and that negotiations are needed to avoid bloodshed and deliver lasting peace."

In January 2022, the former Australian prime minister Paul Keating, who serves on the international board of the China Development Bank, accused Truss of making "demented" comments about Chinese military aggression in the Pacific, saying that "Britain suffers delusions of grandeur and relevance deprivation".

Truss was appointed in December 2021 as the British Government's chief negotiator with the EU, following the resignation of Lord Frost. On 30 January 2022, she told the BBC's *Sunday Morning* programme that "we are supplying and offering extra support into our Baltic allies across the Black Sea, as well as supplying the Ukrainians with defensive weapons." This was mocked in a Facebook post by Russian diplomat Maria Zakharova, as the Baltic states are located on or near the Baltic Sea and not the Black Sea, which is 700 miles away from the Baltic. Her scheduled trip to Ukraine was cancelled after she tested positive for COVID-19 on 31 January 2022.

On 6 February 2022, Truss warned that "China must respect the Falklands' sovereignty" and defended the Falkland Islands as "part of the British family" after China backed Argentina's claim over islands.

#### Russia and Ukraine

On 10 February 2022, Truss again met Lavrov. In the context of tensions between Russia and the West over a build-up of Russian troops near the Russia–Ukraine border, talks between the two foreign ministers were described as "difficult". Lavrov described the discussion as "turning out like the conversation of a mute and a deaf person". He dismissed "demands to remove Russian troops from Russian territory" as "regrettable" and asked Truss if she recognised Russia's sovereignty over the Voronezh and Rostov regions, two Russian provinces where Russian troops were deployed. She mistakenly thought Lavrov was referring to areas of Ukraine and replied that "the UK will never recognise Russian sovereignty over these regions." Later that day, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office prepared legislation to allow for more sanctions on Russian organisations and individuals. On 21 February 2022, Truss condemned Russia's diplomatic recognition of two self-proclaimed separatist republics in the Donbas in Ukraine. She also stated that the British government would announce new sanctions against Russia.

Following Russian's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Truss was asked in a BBC interview on 27 February about a call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for foreigners to join the newly formed International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, and if she supported British volunteers joining, to which she responded: "Absolutely, if that is what they want to do." The comments were criticised by some Conservative colleagues, including former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who said that while "the comments of the foreign secretary may be entirely honourable and understandable", people going to Ukraine to fight without formal licences from the UK government would be in breach of the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 and committing a criminal offence. Following the Russian military's being placed on high nuclear alert on 27 February, Russian officials said it was in response to Truss's comments. Boris Johnson's spokesperson later stated that British citizens should not travel to Ukraine to fight the Russians and dismissed a claim by the Kremlin that comments from Truss prompted the nuclear alert.

At the end of February, Truss called on the G7 countries to limit the import of oil and natural gas from Russia. She said the Russo-Ukrainian War could "last for years" and that it could mark the "beginning of the end" for Putin. In March, Truss said it was necessary to "work with all of our allies around the world", including Saudi Arabia, so that the UK is no longer "dependent" on Russia for oil and natural gas. She wanted to push Russia's economy "back into the Soviet era". On 27 April 2022, Truss said that Western allies, including the UK, must "double down" and "keep going further and faster" to "push Russia out of the whole of Ukraine", including Crimea. In July 2022, she blamed Putin for the emerging global energy and food crises.

### 2022 Conservative Party leadership election

On 10 July 2022, Truss announced her intention to run in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Boris Johnson. She pledged to cut taxes on day one if elected, and said she would "fight the election as a Conservative and govern as a Conservative", adding that she would also take "immediate action to help people deal with the cost of living". She said she would cancel a planned rise in corporation tax and reverse the recent increase in National Insurance rates, funded by delaying the date by which the national debt is planned to fall, as part of a "long-term plan to bring down the size of the state and the tax burden".

On 20 July, Truss and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak were chosen by Conservative Party MPs to be put forward to the membership for the final leadership vote. She finished second in the final MPs ballot, receiving 113 votes to Sunak's 137 votes. In the membership vote, it was announced on 5 September that 57.4% of ballots were for Truss, making her the new leader.

## Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

### Appointment

As the duly elected Leader of the Conservatives, the largest political party in Parliament, Truss was received by Queen Elizabeth II, who appointed her the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Due to the Queen's "episodic mobility problems", she received Truss at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, the first time she has not received a new prime minister at Buckingham Palace during her reign.

### Cabinet

Truss began appointing her cabinet and other government positions on 6 September.

### Popularity

A YouGov poll ranked Truss as the most unpopular UK Prime Minister on record. Several other polls ranked her as extremely unpopular.

### Domestic policies

Shortly after her appointment, and in response to the cost of living crisis, Truss announced a two-year cap on the price per unit for domestic energy supplies called the Energy Price Guarantee, which the government said would cap average household energy bills at £2,500 per year, while costing the state up to £100 billion.

On 23 September 2022, Kwarteng announced a mini-budget that proposed cutting taxation significantly, abolishing the 45p top income tax rate, cutting the base income tax rate, cancelling planned rises in national insurance contributions and corporation tax; abolishing the proposed Health and Social Care Levy, and cutting stamp duty, policies that were to be funded by borrowing. The budget was poorly received by financial markets and was blamed for a rapid fall in the value of the pound, and prompted a response from the Bank of England. The budget was criticised by the International Monetary Fund, U.S. President Joe Biden, the opposition Labour Party and many within Truss's party, including senior politicians Michael Gove and Grant Shapps. It was also highly unpopular with the public, and contributed to a large fall in polling numbers for the Conservative party and for Truss personally.

After initially defending the mini-budget, Truss instructed Kwarteng to reverse the abolition of the 45p tax rate on 3 October. She later reversed the cut in corporation tax and sacked Kwarteng, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt on 14 October. Hunt subsequently reversed the remaining policies announced in the mini-budget, with the exception of the cuts to national insurance contributions and the raising of stamp duty. Hunt also reduced the Energy Price Guarantee from two years to six months.

### Foreign policy

Main article: List of international prime ministerial trips made by Liz Truss

During her first three weeks as prime minister, Truss had "a speaking role before hundreds of world leaders" at the Queen's funeral, and held "a round of diplomatic meetings on the sideline" at the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September, as well as giving a speech in which she said that she wanted people to keep more of their earnings.

### Resignation

Liz Truss announced her resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party after 45 days in office on 20 October 2022 saying she could not "deliver the mandate" on which she was elected "given the situation". Her resignation as prime minister will be effective once her successor is elected, which she indicated would be "within a week". When this occurs, she will become the shortest-serving British prime minister in history.

## Political positions

### Economics and foreign policy

Truss is known for her economic libertarian views and her support for free trade. She founded the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs, a pro-free market collection of parliamentarians arguing for a more entrepreneurial economy and fewer employment laws. In 2022 she called Saudi Arabia an "ally", but said she was not "condoning" the country's policies. Truss promised to "review" moving the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Truss was described as a hawkish foreign secretary. She has called for Britain to reduce economic dependency on China and Russia and has supported certain diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by the British government against China, including barring the Chinese ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang from entering Parliament, in response to the Chinese government's mistreatment of the Uyghur people. She accused Rishi Sunak of "seeking closer economic relations" with China. Truss said she would not go to Taiwan if she is elected prime minister.

She stated that the UK and Turkey are "key European NATO allies" and called for UK-Turkey cooperation on "energy, defence and security" to be deepened. Truss said she would continue to support Cyprus in its "efforts for reunification under international law and in helping find a peaceful and lasting solution" to the Cyprus conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish-backed Turkish Cypriot separatists.

### Brexit

Truss supported the United Kingdom's remaining in the European Union during the 2016 referendum, saying: "I don't want my daughters to grow up in a world where they need a visa or permit to work in Europe, or where they are hampered from growing a business because of extortionate call costs and barriers to trade. Every parent wants their children to grow up in a healthy environment with clean water, fresh air and thriving natural wonders. Being part of the EU helps protect these precious resources and spaces." However, since the referendum, she has become a "darling of the Brexit-backing Conservative right wing" and has been described as supporting Brexit with the zeal of the convert. In 2017, she said that if another referendum were held, she would vote for Brexit, saying: "I believed there would be massive economic problems but those haven't come to pass and I've also seen the opportunities."

In the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, Truss said of her support for Remain that "I was wrong and I am prepared to admit I was wrong". She added that "some of the portents of doom didn't happen and instead we have actually unleashed new opportunities" after Brexit. Her avid support of Brexit during these debates made her popular with the Conservative party members who selected her as prime minister during this leadership election.

### Social and cultural issues

On culture, Truss has said that the Conservative Party should "reject the zero-sum game of identity politics, we reject the illiberalism of cancel culture, and we reject the soft bigotry of low expectations that holds so many people back". She has also suggested that Britain should not ignore the history of the British Empire, but should embrace the country's history "warts and all" if it is to compete with hostile states.

On LGBTQ+ rights, Truss, according to Reuters, voted for gay marriage and has never voted against LGBTQ+ rights, but has also moved to limit trans rights. She spoke against gender self-identification, stating that "medical checks are important". She said that she agreed that "only women have a cervix". She also stated that the government departments should withdraw from Stonewall's diversity champions scheme. Despite initially supporting single-sex services being restricted on the basis of biological sex, she later said in February 2022 that the Government was not interested in enacting such a measure.

### Environmental policies

On 25 July 2022, during the first head-to-head debate on the BBC, Truss said: "I was an environmentalist before it was fashionable. I was a teenage eco-warrior campaigning against damage to the ozone layer." She also said that we should save our resources by using and wasting less which would help the environment and singled out food waste as being a major problem in the UK.

On the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) website, Truss has signed the Conservative Environment Pledge. The CEN has the support of 127 Conservative MPs. She has committed to: (i) Using Brexit freedoms to support sustainable farming and the environment. (ii) Strengthening energy security by unleashing clean British energy. (iii) Cutting the cost of living by rolling out home insulation and electric vehicle charge points across the UK. (iv) Restoring nature by implementing the Environment Act. (v) Turbocharging clean growth through backing the technologies of the future. By signing the CEN pledge, Truss committed to achieving the UK's net zero target by 2050 and in 2022, said that she wanted to do this "in a way that doesn't harm businesses or consumers" by pausing green levies on domestic and business bills.

As reported in *The Daily Telegraph*, Truss plans to scrap an environmental rule called the "nutrient neutrality" requirement. This rule "requires developers to detail the impact in terms of pollution of their proposals on rivers and wetlands" and is implemented by the non-departmental public body Natural England. UK Government support for nutrient neutrality is outlined in a policy paper from March 2022 "Nutrient pollution: reducing the impact on protected sites".

Truss has undertaken to approve a series of oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea, with her advisers talking to energy firms about North Sea production, as confirmed by Offshore Energies UK. Up to 130 new drilling licences could be issued, part of a long-term plan to insure British energy security. Criticism from Greenpeace's Dr Doug Parr said that intensifying drilling would have little effect on energy bills.

In 2022, Truss suggested that she would end the UK government's moratorium on fracking, which has been in place since 2019, to permit it "in parts of the country where there is local support for it". Truss views fracking as a way of reducing the UK's dependence on Russian energy sources. While Environment Secretary in 2015, Truss was urged by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas to apologise to communities facing fracking for "holding back" evidence of the risks for rural areas.

While not against the use of solar panels, in 2022 Truss said: "I think one of the most depressing sights when you're driving through England is seeing fields that should be full of crops or livestock, full of solar panels." She has proposed that solar panel use should be restricted to commercial roofs.

At a hustings in Exeter in August, Truss has said that she would give her support to the construction of small modular reactors and large nuclear power facilities. While Foreign Secretary, Truss cautioned against Chinese involvement in British infrastructure, including nuclear power stations.

A press release from Truss and the FCDO, after the COP26 summit in Glasgow, concludes: "The UK is committed to supporting viable green enterprises ... to help countries across the world pursue green and sustainable growth and economic development.", while a statement by Truss at the end of a G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' meeting in December 2021 affirmed their: "commitment to work together to accelerate and intensify action to keep 1.5 degrees within reach ahead of COP27 next year."

## Personal life

### Marriage and children

In 2000, Truss married Hugh O'Leary, a fellow accountant; the couple has two daughters. From 2004 until mid-2005, she had an extramarital affair with the married MP Mark Field, whom the Conservative Party had appointed as her political mentor. She remains married to O'Leary.

### Religion

In 2022, Truss said: "I share the values of the Christian faith and the Church of England, but I'm not a regular practising religious person."