Ex-PM Liz Truss reignites bitter Tory civil war as she defends bid to slash taxes

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Former prime minister Liz Truss leaves her house in south-east London. In a 4,000-word article for The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss said she had not appreciated the strength of the resistance she would face to her plans and complained her government had been made a "scapegoat" for long-standing economic issues. Picture date: Sunday February 5, 2023. PA Photo. Ms Truss's premiership lasted just 49 days as she was forced to quit after her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's ¿45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts panicked the markets and tanked the pound. See PA story POLITICS Truss. Photo credit should read: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

FORMER Prime Minister Liz Truss reignited a bitter Tory civil war last night as she defended her bid to slash taxes.

MPs are bracing for her first major TV interview tonight after she launched her political comeback with a 4,000-word broadside in the Sunday Telegraph.

On her return to front-line politics, Liz Truss criticised economic orthodoxy and timid civil servants

In thinly veiled swipes at her successor, PM Rishi Sunak, she insisted her major economic blueprint was never given a chance and she was forced out too soon.

Her return to front-line politics, in which she criticised economic orthodoxy and timid civil servants, sparked a furious row among Tories.

Ex-Tory chairman Jake Berry told the BBC Truss was right to argue for tax cuts as that is what people wanted.

But allies of Mr Sunak hit back, saying her approach was “clearly” wrong and Liz had not said sorry for her part in crashing the economy.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps warned slashing taxes now would “rub up against reality” of Britain’s huge Covid and Ukraine war debts.

He insisted: “You’ve got to be responsible… you’ve got to deal with the fundamentals first.”

Ex-Chancellor George Osborne said the former premier’s defence was “nonsense”, telling Channel 4: “She went out of her way not to listen. You can’t just go for – cut the tax.”
Tory MP Alicia Kearns added: “The best and polite way of saying it would be – recollections do vary.”