Liz Truss has said she would “maybe” stand again for Parliament, after losing her seat at the last general election.
But at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week, even those who still defend her record told The i Paper there was no way back for her.
Four years ago, members gathered in the same conference venue for her one and only party conference as prime minister.
A fortnight later, she resigned, becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in modern British history after just 44 days in office.
Key to her downfall was the mini-Budget of September 2022, in which her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced £45bn of unfunded tax cuts.
The event triggered market turmoil, with the pound falling to a record low against the dollar and mortgage lenders pulling hundreds of deals. The Bank of England was eventually forced to buy up to £65bn of government bonds to calm the crisis.
Rishi Sunak succeeded her as prime minister, but led the party to its worst general election defeat in July 2024.
Yet, despite that record, many in the party still defend her, with one former Tory adviser saying he stood by “everything we said when we elected her”.
“She had the right ideas done in the wrong way,” he said.
‘The problem was f**king Tory MPs’
One shadow cabinet minister, who backed Rishi Sunak against Truss in the 2022 leadership contest, said she was not as bad as the public paints her.
Recalling the mini-Budget, they said: “Look, I stood up at the time and defended it. I didn’t back her, but I got behind her, like we all did.”
The shadow minister added that it was “a terrible strategy, but I don’t think all her ideas were wrong”.
“The problem was f**king Tory MPs,” the former adviser said. “You have to bring people along with you, and she didn’t sell what she was doing.”
That view was echoed by party members on the conference floor.
One member said Truss perhaps lacked “the necessary gravitas and charisma for the top job”, but that “a lot of her policies were correct, but possibly poorly delivered and too quickly”.
Another attendee pointed to Truss’s growth agenda. “Her principles about going for growth were correct,” they said, but she failed to “bring the public and the civil servants and the Treasury along with those principles”.
A third credited her with a message the party is now “talking about time and time again” – the need to grow the economy. “I think the phrase was grow the pie, wasn’t it? And she was right,” they said.
But not every member was so forgiving. One, a self-described “strong Tory”, said Truss’s legacy was being the shortest-serving prime minister, “and understandably so”.
“She nearly tanked the economy and the Bank of England had to step in,” they said. “There really isn’t a legacy.”
Another member was blunter still: “I am quite frankly not interested in the legacy [of Liz Truss]. I’m interested in the legacy that [Kemi Badenoch] is setting.”
Liz Truss delivers her resignation speech at Downing Street on October 20, 2022, after just 44 days as prime minister. Her mini-budget saw the pound fall to its lowest-ever level against the dollar (Photo: Rob Pinney/Getty)‘No route back’
But, whatever their view of her record, few of those The i Paper spoke to saw any future for Truss in the party.
Truss has not ruled out a return to the Commons. Asked by former Tory MP Steve Baker on his Free Future podcast whether she would stand again, she said “maybe”, refusing to say for which party. “I’m just not ruling it out, all right?” she said.
The i Paper understands that Truss has not applied to be on the Conservative Party’s candidates list.
However, she may not have the chance. A Conservative Party spokesman told The Sunday Express that she could not stand for the Tories again.
In a bid to revive the party, its leader Kemi Badenoch has tightened rules about who can stand, with many former ministers struggling to get past the process.
She has blocked senior figures including Sir Grant Shapps from standing, and requires all candidates to back her policies on leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and scrapping the 2050 net-zero target.
The “strong Tory” member, who is going through the party’s parliamentary assessment process, said: “I’ve found they’re much more strict. They want better quality candidates.”
However, even if she were given permission to stand for the Conservatives, those who defend her are unlikely to accept her again.
The shadow cabinet minister said: “I feel for her, I really do, but there is no way she can be welcomed back into the party. Half our woes go back to that mini-Budget.”
They added: “Kemi’s building a new party and there’s no place for her in it. I liked Liz, and she didn’t use to be like this, but she’s too far gone now and there is no route back for her.”
Truss spent 54 minutes discussing ‘free speech’ in the second instalment of her YouTube show (Photo: The Liz Truss Show/YouTube)‘Looking for somewhere to be loved’
Since leaving Parliament, Truss has carved out a new career in right-wing media. Last December, she launched “The Liz Truss Show”, a weekly online programme co-produced with US conservative outlet Just the News, billing it as the “home of the counter-revolution”.
She has also been unapologetic about her legacy, claiming in a statement launching the show that the “Deep State tried to destroy me” and that she had been “blamed for a market crash that was not my fault”.
The former Tory advisor said rhetoric like that showed she had now gone “so far off the reservation” that a return was unlikely.
“Everyone blames her for being the worst prime minister in history, so she’s just gone and taken the American money,” he said. “I think she’s just looking for somewhere to be loved.”
One Tory member put it more bluntly, comparing the question to a marriage ending. “Never ever go back,” they said. “You only look forward in life, and that’s exactly what we should do.”
Despite all the criticism she faces, many in the party seem to wish her well in whatever she does next.
Festus Akinbusoye, who is running to be the Conservative candidate for mayor of London, told The i Paper: “I think people should know when the time comes to move on and go and do other fun things in life.”
The Conservative Party was contacted for comment.
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