Former PM Liz Truss says she hopes Donald Trump wins the next US election
By Chris Mason, political editor & Sam Francis, political reporter
BBC News
Liz Truss has endorsed Donald Trump to win this year’s US presidential election, saying the “world was safer” when he was in the White House.
The UK’s shortest-serving prime minster said the world was “on the cusp of very, very strong conflict” and needed “a strong America more than ever”.
Her comments came as the first of Mr Trump’s four criminal trials began in New York.
Mr Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s election.
Ms Truss, who recently spoke at a pro-Trump conference in the US, said the West’s “opponents feared the Trump presidency more” than the Democrats under Joe Biden.
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Truss said Mr Trump was more aggressive towards Iran and China. She also praised Mr Trump’s support for Ukraine, approving the sale of anti-tank Javelin missiles, despite his Republican allies’ recent attempts to block military aid to the country.
“I’m not saying that I agree with absolutely everything he’s ever said,” she said.
But she added: “I do agree that under Donald Trump when he was president of the United States, the world was safer.
“I want to work with fellow conservatives to take on what I believe is a real threat of Western society and civilization being undermined by left-wing extreme ideas.”
This includes supporting Nigel Farage “becoming an MP” if he were to re-join the Conservative party, she told the BBC.
Speaking to the Newscast podcast, Ms Truss said the founder of the political parties Ukip and Reform UK “believes in conservative values – I think it’s a shame he’s not in the Conservative Party”.
Image source, EPA
Liz Truss gave a speech at the pro-Trump Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), this year.
Ms Truss was speaking ahead of the publication of her new book, setting out her political philosophy and the dramatic short stint in Downing Street.
She argued she was forced out of office after 49 days by powerful establishment figures, including in the civil service.
Ms Truss was forced to stand down in October 2022 after her mini-budget sparked economic turmoil. Her brief time in power made her the shortest-serving prime minister in Britain’s history.
She denied her fall from office was humiliating, saying: “It was difficult. Absolutely. Was it humiliating? I wouldn’t use that word actually.”
She said she had gone into the job with the intention of changing things, and hadn’t succeeded.
She added: “But is that really worse than not trying in the first place? Is it worse than being dishonest and claiming I was going to try and do things and then not do them? Is it worse than being in Number 10 and not doing anything? I don’t think so personally, which maybe I think differently from other people.”
Ms Truss said her and Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting plan to promote growth, was “undermined by organisations” like the Bank of England and the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Civil servants had also failed to warn her “the UK economy was uniquely exposed” so called Liability Driven Investments (LDIs) – which invest in government bonds because they are usually so stable.
The Bank of England was forced to start buying back government bonds after these LDIs came close to collapse – which in turn could have forced them to rush to sell other assets.
She said: “I have spent many months getting the blame, people saying it’s all my fault, people criticising me, trashing me.
“Yet the Bank of England had a very, very significant role in what happened. The Office of Budget Responsibility had a very significant role in what happened.
“I haven’t seen them get anything like the level of scrutiny or questions that I’ve got.”
These organisations are at the heart of “the problem with the governance of Britain” Ms Truss argued, and must be removed if the UK is to thrive – including Andrew Bailey stepping down as the governor of the Bank of England and scrapping the OBR.
Divesting of power from democratically elected officials has left minsters “impotent” in the face of a bloated civil service, she said.
“Politicians have ended up having responsibility without power, and quangocrats have ended up having power without responsibility and more job security – as I found out.”
A Bank of England spokesperson said: “The Bank has already set out its response to the LDI crisis in full, including to Parliament, and has nothing more to add.”
Ms Truss’s prognosis is a complete overhaul of the political system, including “abolishing quite a lot of things”.
International organisation like the United Nations (UN), which she says no longer has “a purpose”, are also on the chopping block.
“The UN Security Council as it’s currently constituted with both China and Russia on is not keeping the world safe.
“At present, it has been very ineffective at dealing with international situations, in fact, positively damaging.”
And she said that the Conservative party was currently split “between those people like me, who think we need fundamental institutional change in Britain, that our institutions have been captured by leftist ideas” and others “not prepared to go that far”.
She said: “We need a sufficient number of MPs who understand what the problem is, and are prepared to vote to abolish the quangos.”
The full interview is available on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
