A woman from Roundhay thinks it’s a “good thing” Liz Truss grew up in the area, as the Tory leader prepares to become the UK’s next Prime Minister.
Truss, 47, will be appointed as Prime Minister tomorrow (September 6) after being elected as the Leader of the Conservative Party with 81,326 member’s votes, replacing Boris Johnson. She beat off fierce competition from Rishi Sunak, who received about 20,000 less votes.
The incoming PM, who was born in Oxford, was raised for much of her childhood in the leafy North Leeds suburb. As part of her campaign, she spoke of being raised in the “red wall” area and criticised Roundhay School, stating the pitfalls she noticed at the high school which spurred her on to pursuing a career in politics.
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Roundhay resident Paula Shapero, 59, sees the positives of Truss being raised in Leeds. The retired recruiter and mother-of-one thinks the 47-year-old will have a better understanding of what Leeds people are going through.
Paula said: “I’m going to wait to see what happens. I think it’s a good thing [she’s from Roundhay], I think she understands the culture of the city.”
Paula admits however that she is neutral on the matter and will wait to see how Truss performs before forming an outright opinion. Retired taxi-firm owner Lawrence Stone, 59, thinks Truss has forgotten her Leeds roots and has little faith in her leadership.
Lawrence, father-of-three, said: “I don’t like her. I think tax cuts are not a good idea at this stage, Rishi would have helped with the cost of living more. She’s not a Roundhay person anymore. I wouldn’t vote for her anyway.
“I think she’s forgotten where she’s come from. They usually do, spending too much time in London and in the South.”
Retired teacher Jean, who didn’t want her last name published, said: “I don’t think it’s particularly special to the area, considering the way she has spoken about the area, talking about it as if it was a Red Wall seat. It’s just an absolute fib, it isn’t a red wall seat.
“We just have an extremely good Labour MP [Fabian Hamilton]. She talked about Roundhay School, which is a very good school where my three sons attended and did extremely well there. She made it sound like an absolute dump, which it wasn’t. I’m just appalled at the way she can distort the truth. She said she came from a rough comprehensive in North Leeds. It’s middle class.”
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