London:
Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss admitted on Thursday to making “mistakes” during her disastrous short term last year, but blamed the economic “establishment” for torpedoing her policies.
The ex-Conservative leader cautiously expressed regret in her first TV interview since being impeached in October after just 49 days.
“While I did what I could to enforce my policy, I also recognize that I made mistakes too,” Truss told a sympathetic audience during a live question-and-answer session on right-wing channel GB News.
“And I wasn’t as ready as I should have been. And I wasn’t prepared for some of the attack and brickbats I got,” she added.
Financial markets crashed, raising borrowing costs for millions of Britons already struggling with skyrocketing prices, as Truss unveiled a package of uncovered tax cuts in a bid to boost economic growth.
Forced to sack her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Truss was subsequently told by Conservative grandees that she herself could not survive at 10 Downing Street following Boris Johnson’s ousting, and was replaced by Rishi Sunak.
“I didn’t want people’s mortgages to go up. I didn’t want people in Britain to struggle,” Truss told the audience, blaming “groupthink around what I call the economic establishment”.
“What I want to see is those conservative economic policies that give people real hope for the future. So that’s what I’m determined to do. I’m determined to fight for those policies.”
Truss backed Johnson after receiving an excoriating rebuke earlier Thursday from a committee of MPs investigating his ‘Partygate’ denials during Covid lockdowns.
“Never, ever write Boris off,” she said, echoing Johnson’s diehard supporters who challenged the sanctions recommended by the commission after he stepped down as MP.
But Truss denied that she wanted Sunak to fail.
“Let’s be clear: I want the Prime Minister and the Conservatives to win the next election. I think (Labour Opposition Leader) Keir Starmer would be an absolute disaster,” she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)