Liz Truss took a “Spinal Tap approach” to government, demanding the volume was “turned up to 11”, her former chief speech writer has said.
Asa Bennett said the former prime minister had arrived in Downing Street determined to put “rocket boosters” under the economy and that it was a matter of “bitter regret” that her efforts had failed.
Truss’s short-lived premiership ended after her mini-budget led to financial chaos, which forced the Bank of England to take emergency action to prevent pension funds collapsing.
Her resignation followed a tumultuous 45 days in office during which Truss’s mini-budget crashed the markets, she lost two key ministers and shed the confidence of almost all her own MPs.
Before her resignation, Truss allowed her then chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to take the blame for September’s mini-budget, despite it being widely seen as a joint project.
Bennett, who made the comments while appearing on Liz Truss’s Big Gamble, a BBC Radio 4 documentary that takes a close look at her premiership, said that her determination to take “fast action” in what she thought would fix the economy reflected her willingness to “push the envelope”, comparing her approach to Spinal Tap, the spoof band.
Bennett told the BBC: “I think Liz felt that she’s gambled before in her life and then she could gamble again on this.
“And yes, the stakes would be high, but the payoff was worth it in the sense of taking that fast action. I think she always liked to be the one that was ready to push the envelope and would only back down if there was good reason.
“I think Liz was someone who would take this sort of Spinal Tap approach, turn it up to 11, and only if necessary, turn it down again.”
Bennett added that Truss believed she had the answers to the problems with Britain’s economy, which included £45bn worth of tax cuts.
“That is why she felt it really was time to take the hard decisions and root it out by trying to break with the sort of consensus, the cosy consensus that meant that Britain had been flagging along with international competitiveness,” Bennett added.
