Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has claimed that Westminster's "biggest secret" is that MPs do not really hold much power and that "unelected bureaucrats" are the ones pulling the strings. In the latest episode of the Daily Expresso, host JJ Anisiobi asked her: "What is the biggest secret Westminster is hiding from the world?"
Truss answered: "I think the biggest secret Westminster is hiding is the fact that MPs don't really have very much power and there's a lot of pantomime politics going on. They are really beholden to the bureaucrats in terms of what they're actually doing." She added: "They're lying about how powerful they are."
Who really holds power?
Asked directly who holds power in Britain, she said: "The bureaucrats have the power." She added: "I think people falsely think MPs have a lot of power." The former PM said MPs have power collectively but not individually. "It's the bureaucrats who have who have power individually," she said.
Her comments came during the Daily Expresso episode in which she criticised the Budget set out by Chancellor John Healey, revisited the events surrounding her short-lived premiership, defended her 2022 mini-budget and levelled fresh accusations against the Bank of England.
Bank of England blamed for 2022 turmoil
One of her most explosive claims concerned the Bank of England's role in the financial turmoil that followed her mini-budget in September 2022. Truss insisted that the central bank, rather than her tax-cutting plans, was primarily responsible for the crisis that engulfed her government. She also criticised the Bank's decision to begin quantitative tightening, which involves reducing its holdings of government bonds, after years of quantitative easing.
She claimed the Bank of England governor intervened over who should be appointed as the head of the Treasury and pressured her to reverse policies.
Budget branded a 'nothing burger'
Truss branded the Budget set out today as a "complete nothing burger" and described it as "tumbleweed." She said: "I thought it was a complete nothing burger. I mean nothing's changed. It's like tumbleweed. The country is still going to the dogs. The debt's still going to be higher, the economy's stagnated."
"The economic growth forecasts were downgraded again and we're still heading for the cliff, we're still heading for a fiscal crisis. It's only because Paris is literally burning down that we look slightly better than France. But our debt is in a dire situation, and they've done nothing to actually attract companies to invest in the UK, to get fracking, to do the things we need to do to actually transform our economy from the basket case that it is at the moment."
Truss was the leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the UK for less than 50 days, resigning after a mini-budget announcement rocked the economy. Her exit made her the shortest-lived Prime Minister in UK history. She first became the Conservative MP for South West Norfolk in 2010 and has served in several cabinet posts, including Foreign Secretary and International Trade Secretary. Daily Expresso episodes are available every weekday at 5pm on The Daily Express YouTube Channel.
