“Liz Truss has declared that only her plan to transform Britain into a low tax, high growth economy will reverse the “current trajectory of managed decline”. In her first newspaper interview since becoming Prime Minister, Ms Truss said that “tough decisions” are needed to boost growth in order to increase wages, investment and employment. She insisted that the public is more concerned with jobs and education than “what the polls were last year”, warning that voters “feel that there has been a failure to address some of the fundamental issues that affect our country”. Unveiling new reforms to cut red tape for small businesses, the Prime Minister said that she wants to combat Britain’s “lack of dynamism”. Seeking to quell discontent among Tory MPs over measures such as the abolition of the 45p tax rate, the Prime Minister said that she wants to “bring people with me on this journey”. – Sunday Telegraph
“It is hardly the backdrop Liz Truss might have hoped for as she sits down for her first newspaper interview as Prime Minister. With polls putting the Conservatives as many as 33 points behind Labour, and figures from across the political spectrum lining up to denounce Ms Truss’s tax-cutting plans, she is effectively under siege less than 30 days after entering 10 Downing Street. But the extent of the onslaught does not appear to come as a great surprise to the Prime Minister, who has spent more than a decade preparing for this moment. “Often, I think, people feel politicians talk, and they don’t necessarily ‘do’. I’m very focused on doing, and getting these changes happening in the British economy, enabling people to keep more of their own money, keeping bills low,” she says.” – Sunday Telegraph
“Kwasi Kwarteng has launched a hard-hitting attack on Labour for characterising him as not ‘the right sort of black person’, as he derided the party’s record on diversity. The under-fire Chancellor spoke out in an exclusive Mail on Sunday interview, in which he also defended his mini-Budget that caused turmoil on the international money markets and alarmed Tory MPs. Mr Kwarteng branded Labour as ‘backward’ when it came to identity politics as he gave his first response to their MP Rupa Huq shockingly describing him as ‘superficially’ black. His comments came as the Left-wing Mirror newspaper yesterday apologised for a ‘terrible error’ after it mistakenly identified a different black man – a banker – as Mr Kwarteng.” – Daily Mail
“The King, a passionate environmental campaigner, has abandoned plans to attend next month’s Cop27 climate change summit after Liz Truss told him to stay away. He had intended to deliver a speech at the meeting of world leaders in Egypt. Truss, who is also unlikely to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh gathering, objected to the King’s plans during a personal audience at Buckingham Palace last month. The decision is likely to fuel tensions between the new prime minister and the new monarch, although a Downing Street source claimed the audience had been cordial and there had “not been a row”. The news comes amid suspicion that the government may water down, or abandon, its environmental target to achieve “net zero” by 2050.” – Sunday Times
“Two of the prime minister’s most senior advisers joined No 10 on secondment from her chief of staff’s lobbying company in a highly unusual arrangement. Last week, The Sunday Times revealed that Mark Fullbrook, Liz Truss’s chief of staff, was not employed by the government and had instead been seconded to Downing Street by his firm. Critics said the deal shielded him from transparency rules and posed a potential financial advantage days after Truss made it easier for consultants to classify themselves as self-employed for tax purposes. Days later, Downing Street bowed to pressure and said it would employ Fullbrook, 60, directly. However, No 10 failed to acknowledge that two of Truss’s most influential aides were also lobbyists on secondment from Fullbrook Strategies. They are Alice Robinson, who runs Truss’s private office, and Mac Chapwell, her political adviser.” – Sunday Times
“Nadine Dorries describes herself on Twitter as a “recovering secretary of state”, but admits her convalescence after leaving government last month, alongside her friend Boris Johnson, is not going so well. In fact, it would be fair to say that last week’s YouGov poll, which gave Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party a 33-point lead over the Tories, nearly gave her a coronary. Speaking from her cottage in the Cotswolds, the former culture secretary can barely contain her dismay. The Conservative Party’s ratings appear to have gone the same way as financial markets — into complete freefall. “The day they ousted Boris we were five points behind in the polls, which was actually fantastic,” she reflects. “To be only five points behind in the polls when you have been in power for 12 years was an incredible place to be.” – Sunday Times
“Until recently, the question as to whether or not Labour would do a deal with the nationalists in order to govern in a hung parliament has been a toxic one for the party. If they decline, they are accused of not being serious about replacing the Conservatives; if they say yes, they risk accusations of being in Nicola Sturgeon’s pocket – an attack that had devastating consequences for Ed Miliband’s hopes of victory in 2015. Yet in his conference speech on Monday, Starmer appeared to bury the issue for good by ruling out an electoral coalition with the SNP “under any circumstances”. Of course recent polling suggests that a majority Labour government is at least a distinct possibility, and such a prospect makes the need for coalitions less urgent. But even in the event of a hung parliament, the SNP may well face a bigger dilemma than Labour. Spurned as a coalition partner, what, in reality, could Sturgeon’s party do? Side with the Conservatives to bring the Government down? Hardly. That tactic was tried in 1979 and it took more than a decade for the party to recover.” – Sunday Telegraph