Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has made her first detailed public comments since resigning last October.
Ms Truss stepped down after just 49 days, following pressure from fellow Conservative MPs. It came on the back of a disastrous mini-budget by then Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, who announced large-scale borrowing and tax cuts - which panicked the markets and tanked the pound.
In a column in the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss blamed the 'left-wing economic establishment' for her downfall and claimed that she was not given a 'realistic chance' to implement her tax-cutting agenda.
READ MORE : Dog owner targeted by vile scammers who threatened to shoot his missing pet if he refused to pay
She wrote: “I am not claiming to be blameless in what happened, but fundamentally I was not given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support.
“I assumed upon entering Downing Street that my mandate would be respected and accepted. How wrong I was. While I anticipated resistance to my programme from the system, I underestimated the extent of it.
“Similarly, I underestimated the resistance inside the Conservative parliamentary party to move to a lower-tax, less-regulated economy.”
Ms Truss added that she wanted to become prime minister to change things, not to "manage decline or to preside over our country sliding into stagnation". She also doubled down on her opposition to corporation tax increasing from 19 to 25pc, slamming the policy as "economically detrimental".
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
- Ex-footballer detained at Manchester Airport over drugs operation faces losing property empire
- Boy, 14, warned of being 'stabbed up' before bag stolen at Greater Manchester bus station
- Woman in her 60s rushed to hospital amid Canal Street 'brawl'
- 'I came back from holiday to find I'd lost everything I'd ever worked for... even my cat'
- Nicola Bulley’s sister speaks out against police theory saying there's ‘no evidence’
