A defiant Liz Truss has insisted she was not the worst prime minister – as she handed the unwanted accolade to Tony Blair.
The 48-year-old, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, oversaw the disastrous mini-Budget in 2022 that sent the markets into freefall during her 49 days in office.
However, the South West Norfolk MP has claimed that three-time election winner Tony Blair was instead the worst leader the country had ever had.
In an interview with her local newspaper, Ms Truss also again refused to accept responsibility for her downfall, blaming “unelected officials” in the Bank of England and other forces for her exit from No 10.
“I campaigned in a leadership election on policies that got the support of Conservative party members, policies that in my view were the right policies. I was thwarted in delivering that,” she told the Eastern Daily Press.
“People criticise politicians who say something and then don’t deliver it – I would never do that. I am truthful. I believe what I am doing and I follow through on that.”
She added: “We have a problem in this country that someone elected on a mandate can’t deliver that mandate because the unelected state don’t want to deliver it. We need to change the way Britain is governed.”
Ms Truss, who has claimed her efforts to cut taxes were “sabotaged” by the “deep state”, said: “The worst prime minister in recent years is Tony Blair who created things like the Equality Act, the Human Rights Act and the Climate Change Act.”
She will be defending a majority of 26,195 at the general election but has been cited as one of the Tory figureheads at risk of losing their seats with Labour commanding a double-digit lead in most opinion polls.
Ms Truss held the seat since 2010 but faces stiff competition from independent candidate James Bagge, a former Conservative, and Toby McKenzie, Reform’s candidate.
Mr Bagge, a lawyer and ex-army officer, was among prominent local Conservatives who resigned from the party in protest at Ms Truss’s selection as its candidate for the seat by Tory HQ.
Rishi Sunak was last week urged to deselect Ms Truss after she appeared on a “far-right” platform founded by a commentator Carl Benjamin who joked about raping an MP, promoting her book, Ten Years to Save the West.
