Liz Truss has been declared the winner of the Tory leadership race and will be sworn in as Prime Minister tomorrow.
On the campaign trail Truss proved herself faltering and prone to being “misrepresented”, her description for having to reverse policies, and her tax-cutting agenda has been described as a “holiday from reality” by senior Tories.
Right now Labour has been gifted a poll lead, thanks to Keir Starmer’s energy price rise freeze and the drag anchor legacy of Boris Johnson’s covid rule breaking. But Truss is expected to get a bounce when she becomes Prime Minister and could be given an extra trampoline jump in the polls if she switches track and announces substantial help for households to deal with the cost of living crisis.
The prospect of Prime Minister Truss should not be under-estimated.
Here are some of the most divisive policies she has committed to and how it could affect you:
Break the economics rules and fuel inflation
Truss has promised to hold an emergency budget within weeks if she succeeds Boris Johnson next month. But as well as avoiding media scrutiny during the campaign she plans to stage the budget without the independent economic forecasts of the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) for a formal forecast of public finances to accompany the budget.
It would represent a break from all budgets since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 and fuel claims by senior Tories, including former chancellor Ken Clark, that her plan to cut taxes through borrowing would cement high inflation into the economy for years to come.
Liz Truss will plunge the economy into an “inflation spiral” if she does not choose between her unfunded £50 billion tax cuts or providing cost-of-living support, her Tory leadership rival has warned.
Drive Scots to back independence
Polls show that Truss is almost as unpopular as Boris Johnson in Scotland. But at least Johnson tried to kill nationalism with kindness through a “lovebomb” strategy of emphasising the co-operation between the SNP and Tory governments.
Truss has taken the opposite tack, claiming she would “ignore” Nicola Sturgeon, rebrand independence as separatism and remain implacably opposed to a second referendum.
Do down the workforce
Truss launched an astonishing broadside against British workers, saying they needed “more graft” and suggesting they lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals.
In a leaked recording Truss, who has put patriotism at the heart of her leadership campaign, suggested the disparity was “partly a mindset or attitude thing”.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a key ally of Truss, defended the suggestion that British workers need “more graft” as “sensible”.
Rees-Mogg, the Brexit opportunities minister, said her comments reflected “poor productivity in the British economy”.
Benefits crackdown
Both Tory candidates to be Prime Minister have threatened a crackdown on benefit claimants. Truss responded to calls to “fix the benefits system” by saying she would “change the incentives” under the benefit to push more people into work.
Ministers have already announced changes to make Universal Credit tougher and sanction more people in the wake of Covid, when claims soared.
People must now take jobs outside their expertise just four weeks after they claim, instead of three months. This launched in February and nearly 110,000 people are now being sanctioned per month.
Tax cuts for the rich
In a bid to woo Tory voters, Truss has said she will cut taxes immediately after she gets the keys to No10.
Truss has said she doesn’t want to give “handouts” and is instead focusing on removing the green levies on energy bills, and cutting National Insurance.
But analysts have found it would save the poorest tenth of households on the lowest incomes an average of just 76p a month.
The study from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change suggested the same tax cut would leave the richest tenth of households better off by £93 a month.
Attack trade union rights
Truss will come in as Prime Minister at a time of resurgent trade union activity and widespread strike in the public and private sector over wages.
Truss would ban public sector strikes and increase the vote needed for strike action to 50 per cent, up from 40 per cent.
The minimum notice period for strike action would be raised from two weeks to four weeks, and a cooling-off period would be implemented so that unions can no longer strike as many times as they like in the six-month period after a ballot.
Truss would also put an end to members receiving tax-free payments from trade unions on the days they are on strike.
The Foreign Secretary plans to introduce new legislation in her first 30 days of power to guarantee a minimum level of service on vital national infrastructure.
Boris Johnson had already been working on new laws to make industrial action such as rail strikes illegal unless a certain number of staff are working.
Blame migrants
Truss backs the Government’s controversial plan to deport some migrants to Rwanda and will pursue similar schemes in other countries Truss has vowed to go ahead with the plans which she told Tory members allow “us to control our own borders”.
The £120 million bid to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats is yet to deport any asylum seekers because of legal challenges.
Truss suggested extending the scheme to other countries - despite widespread criticism of the existing plan, which has been dubbed costly and cruel by critics.
Trim public sector pay
Liz Truss was forced to drop proposals to cut £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London after furious warnings from senior Tories. Many insist the plan would actually “level down” the nation, leaving police, teachers and nurses poorer in the north than in the south.
She scrapped the plan just over 12 hours after making the policy announcement and insisted her policy had been “misrepresented” by the media.
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