By Andy Silvester
LIZ TRUSS will warn today (Monday) that a lack of supply side reform under Rishi Sunak will lengthen a 25-year-long ‘economic consensus’ that has seen growth effectively flatline across the west.
In a speech this morning the former Prime Minister will say that free-marketeers and the Conservative party became complacent after the Cold War, allowing “the debate to be framed and led by the left.”
Truss attempted to push through an aggressive tax reforms package as Prime Minister, which backfired after a sharp rise in the cost of UK debt almost sent a host of so-called LDI funds into meltdown.
Truss will say that the market reaction to her tax cut programme was in fact due to “markets that were already destabilised by the Bank of England’s slowness to hike interest rates and thefailure to regulate LDIs.
“I was effectively forced into a policy reversal under the threat of a UK meltdown,” she will say.
Truss is believed to harbour hopes of a political resurrection despite her 44-day stay at Downing Street ending in ignominious circumstances.
Her speech at the Institute for Government today is her first major intervention on the economy since she resigned and will be seen as a sign of growing frustration from some free-market Tories at PM Rishi Sunak.
She will warn that the current administration has delivered precious little of the supply side reforms she believes necessary to reinvigorate the UK economy.
“Since last year no major supply side reforms or tax cuts have been allowed to happen – whether it is financial services, childcare, planning or on the environment.
In fact, 150 Conservative MPs have written to the Prime Minister saying there should be no change to Net Zero legislation,” she will add.
The Lib Dems said that Truss warning on the economy was like an “arsonist giving a fire safety talk.”
