Liz Truss

Truss contested election for the Labour constituency of Hemsworth in 2001, swinging the vote by 4%.[21] Prior to the 2005 general election parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley Sue Catling was pressured to resign by the local Conservative Association,[22] whereupon Truss was selected to fight the seat.

Under David Cameron as Conservative leader, Truss was added to the party's 'A List'.[21] In October 2009, she was selected for the South West Norfolk seat by members of the constituency Conservative Association. She won over 50% of the vote in the first round of the final against five other candidates.[23][24] Shortly after her selection, some members of the constituency association objected to Truss's selection, saying that information about her marital infidelity, reported to have taken place several years earlier, with the Conservative MP Mark Field had been withheld from the members.[25][26][27] A motion was proposed to terminate Truss's candidature, but this was defeated by 132 votes to 37 at a general meeting of the association's members three weeks later.[28]

Truss at the think-tank Policy Exchange in 2013

On 4 September 2012, Truss was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education, with responsibility for childcare and early learning, assessment, qualifications and curriculum reform, behaviour and attendance, and school food review.[49] In this role, she developed some of the policy areas that she had pursued as a backbencher.

In January 2013, she announced proposals to reform A-Levels, by concentrating examinations at the end of two-year courses.[50] She sought to improve British standards in maths for fear that children are falling behind those in Asian countries,[51] and led a fact-finding visit to schools and teacher-training centres in Shanghai in February 2014 to see how children there have become the best in the world at maths.[52]

Truss also outlined plans to reform childcare, intended to overhaul childcare qualifications, and provide more choice of quality education and care for parents.[53] The proposed reforms were broadly welcomed by some organisations such as the charity 4Children,[54] the Confederation of British Industry[55] and the College of West Anglia.[56] However, the proposals met opposition from others. The TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady and the then Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg were among those criticising the reforms,[57] echoed by some parents and childcare bodies, such as the charity National Day Nurseries Association.[58]

The columnist Polly Toynbee was highly critical of the minister's plans,[59] and challenged Truss to demonstrate how to care for two babies alongside four toddlers on her own. Truss responded to Toynbee's challenge by saying that being an early educator was a very demanding job, requiring great and specialist expertise, for which she was not trained.[60] In the event, aspects of the reforms relating to relaxation of childcare ratios were blocked by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

In a 15 July 2014 cabinet reshuffle, Truss was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, replacing Owen Paterson. In apparent contrast to her predecessor,[61] Truss declared that she fully believed that climate change is happening,[62] and that "human beings have contributed to that".[63]

In November 2014, Truss launched a new 10-year bee and pollinator strategy to try to reverse the trend of falling bee populations,[64] including a strategy to revive traditional meadows which provide the most fertile habitat for pollinators. In July 2015, she approved the limited temporary lifting of an EU ban on the use of two neonicotinoid pesticides, enabling their use for 120 days on about 5% of England's oil seed rape crop to ward off the cabbage stem flea beetle;[65] campaigners have warned that pesticides have been shown to harm bees by damaging their renowned ability to navigate home.[66]

Truss cut taxpayer subsidies for solar panels on agricultural land, as her view was that the land could be better used to grow crops, food and vegetables.[67] She described farming and food as "hotbeds of innovation"[68] and promoted the production and export of British food, including cheese, pork pies and apples.[69] Her remarks at the Conservative Party conference in 2014 that "We import two-thirds of our cheese: that is a disgrace!", and her "opening up new pork markets" in Beijing were mocked on the satirical current affairs programme Have I Got News For You?[70]

In March 2015 she was one of only two Cabinet Ministers to vote against the government's proposals to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, in what was technically a free vote.[71]

Critics who have attempted to engage with her, according to George Monbiot in The Guardian,[72] have said that she is "indissolubly wedded to a set of theories about how the world should be, that are impervious to argument, facts or experience. She was among the first ministers to put her own department on the block in the latest [2015] spending review, volunteering massive cuts. She seems determined to dismantle the protections that secure our quality of life: the rules and agencies defending the places and wildlife we love."[72]

On 14 July 2016, Truss was appointed as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in Theresa May's first ministry. Truss became the first woman to hold either position. The decision to appoint her was criticised by the then Minister of State for Justice Lord Faulks, who resigned from the government, questioning whether she was going to have the clout to be able to stand up to the Prime Minister when necessary, on behalf of the judges.[73] Truss herself said that he did not contact her before going public with his criticism, and she had never met or spoken to him.[74]

In November 2016, Truss was further criticised, including by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the Criminal Bar Association, for failing to support more robustly the judiciary and the principle of judicial independence, after three judges of the Divisional Court came under attack from politicians and sections of the press for ruling against the government in the article 50 Brexit case.[75] Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, who had previously suggested that, like her immediate predecessors Chris Grayling and Michael Gove, she lacked the essential legal expertise that the constitution requires, called for her to be sacked as Justice Secretary as her perceived inadequate response "signals to the judges that they have lost their constitutional protector."[76]

Truss denied she had failed to defend the judges. "An independent judiciary is the cornerstone of the rule of law, vital to our constitution and freedoms", she wrote. "It is my duty as Lord Chancellor to defend that independence. I swore to do so under my oath of office. I take that very seriously and I will always do so."[77] She also said that the independent judiciary was robust enough to withstand attack by The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail.[78] However, in March 2017, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd told the House of Lords constitution select committee that Truss was "completely and utterly wrong" to say she could not criticise the media adding that

I can understand how the pressures were on in November, but she has taken a position that is constitutionally, absolutely wrong – the circuit judges were very concerned. They wrote to the Lord Chancellor because litigants in person were coming and saying "you're an enemy of the people" – I don't think it is understood either how absolutely essential it is that we [the judges] are protected because we have to act as our oath requires us without fear or favour.[79]

Following a significant rise in prison violence incidents in 2015 and 2016,[80] Truss announced in November 2016 a £1.3 billion investment programme in the prison service and the recruitment of 2,500 additional prison officers, partly reversing the cuts made under the previous coalition government.[81][82]

On 11 June 2017, following the general election, Truss was moved to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, attending the cabinet but not a full member of it, in what was seen by some as a demotion.[83]

Truss developed an enthusiasm for cultivating her presence on Twitter and Instagram. The Times described this as an unorthodox approach that had won her fans.[84][85] She was also closely involved in the launch of the free market campaign group, Freer.[86] Some of her civil servants were reported as finding her tenure as Chief Secretary "exhausting" because of her demanding work schedule and her habit of asking officials multiplication questions at random intervals.[87]

In June 2018, Truss gave a speech at the London School of Economics outlining her declared commitment to freedom and individual liberty. She criticised regulations that get in the way of people's lives and warned that raising taxes could see the Tories being "crushed" at the polls;[88] in particular, she criticised ministerial colleagues who should, in her view, realise "that it's not macho just to demand more money. It's much tougher to demand better value and challenge the blob of vested interests within your department."[89] Her speech also contained jokes at the expense of other ministers, including Michael Gove.[90] She was reportedly berated for this by the Prime Minister Theresa May, although Truss and Gove both maintained that they were good friends.[91]

In September 2018, during a three-day visit to Washington, Truss met with a series of rightwing American think tanks to discuss deregulation and the benefits of Reaganomics.[92]

In 2019, Truss declared that she could be a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party to succeed May.[93] However she ultimately elected not to stand and endorsed Boris Johnson.[94]

Truss and US National Security Advisor John Bolton in 2019

After Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, Truss was tipped for promotion in return for her support during his leadership campaign, during which she advised Johnson on economic policy, and was the architect of plans to cut taxes for people earning over £50,000.[87] Consequently, it was thought she would be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer or Business Secretary but was instead promoted to the position of Secretary of State for International Trade,[3] succeeding Liam Fox and becoming the first female to hold the position. Following the resignation of Amber Rudd, Truss was additionally appointed Minister for Women and Equalities.

Twice in September 2019, Truss said that the Department for International Trade had "inadvertently" allowed shipping of military supplies to Saudi Arabia in contravention of an order of the Court of Appeal.[95][96][97] While Truss apologised to a Commons committee on arms export controls, opposition MPs said her apology was insufficient and called for her to resign for breaking the law.[98]

On 19 March 2020, Truss introduced to Parliament the Trade Act 2021.[99][100]

In August 2020 meetings Truss held with the Institute of Economic Affairs, were removed from the public record, raising concerns about integrity, transparency and honesty in public office. Truss claimed the meetings were "personal discussions".[101]

Truss undertook negotiations for a post-Brexit free trade agreement between the UK and Japan. She held meetings with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi, before an issue in relation to stilton cheese caused the talks to stall.[102] An agreement between the two countries was struck in September 2020, which Truss said would result in "99% of exports to Japan" being "tariff-free". It was the first major trade deal the UK had signed since leaving the European Union, and hailed as a "historic moment" by Truss.[103]

In December 2020, Truss made a speech on equality policy stating that the UK focused too heavily on “fashionable” race, sexuality, and gender issues at the expense of poverty and geographical disparity. It also attacked postmodernist philosophy and Foucault. In the speech, she announced that the government and civil service would no longer be using unconscious bias training.[104][105]