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Bloomberg
Liz Truss has undergone a political reinvention to become the favorite to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party and UK Prime Minister.
The Foreign Secretary campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union before embracing Brexit with the zeal of a convert after the vote went the other way. And she’s gone from yelling slogans as a child against Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s Conservative government and leading Oxford University’s Liberal Democrat society to become the darling of the Tory Party right.
“My parents were left-wing activists, and I’ve been on a political journey ever since,†Truss said in an ITV debate of Tory leadership candidates on Sunday. On Thursday, she told BBC radio that she’d got it wrong on Brexit. Now, Truss stands six weeks —and one ballot — away from claiming the top job in UK politics, with only former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak standing in her way. British bookmakers have installed her as the favorite, and polling of party members by YouGov suggests she’ll soundly defeat her opponent in the runoff vote among the party grassroots.
Truss — who’ll turn 47 next week —has appealed to the right wing of her party through her libertarianism, trumpeting the value of free markets, backing low taxation and repeatedly railing against the “nanny state†interfering in the lives of ordinary Britons.
She’s won admirers among ardent Brexiteers by challenging the EU over the Brexit deal struck by Johnson’s own government, introducing a bill overriding the bulk of its provisions on Northern Ireland.
Even while protesting loyalty to Johnson, the foreign secretary has done little to disguise her ambitions to claim the top job, schmoozing with colleagues in social events known as “fizz with Liz†and running a carefully-curated instagram feed that rivaled the social media operation run by Sunak’s team.
She’s also unashamedly invited comparisons with Thatcher, the Tory icon she once protested against. That includes posing in a tank in eastern Europe — much as the former premier did on a visit to British forces in Germany in 1986. Truss reached the final two after trailing Sunak and Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt in the first four rounds of voting among Tory MPs; only managing to overhaul Mordaunt in a tight fifth vote. A political survivor, she’s the longest-serving member of the government, holding ministerial posts since 2012.