Liz Truss blames Tory election drubbing on Rishi Sunak ‘trashing her record’ before pointing finger at Tony Blair
14 July 2024, 08:51 | Updated: 14 July 2024, 12:20
Sir Conor Burns' scathing attack on ex- PM Liz Truss
Rishi Sunak ‘trashing my record’ is to blame for the Conservatives' disastrous election result, the former Prime Minister Liz Truss has claimed.
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Writing in The Telegraph, Ms Truss admitted she stayed quiet during the election campaign “to prevent further damage to the party” but said she must “speak out now”.
The former Prime Minister said: “More than 250 of us paid the electoral price for this. Regrettably, over the course of the next five years it will be the British people who have to bear the cost of this failing.”
Ms Truss then singled out Mr Sunak, who she claims “abandoned” Conservatives principles by claiming that “cutting taxes did not generate growth”.
This morning, former Tory MP Conor Burns unleashed on Ms Truss following her comments, saying those around her are "letting her down.
He told LBC's Sunday with Lewis Goodall: "I don't think she's actually well and those who are close to her are letting her down by not telling her the truth, she is preposterous, she is toxic, she needs to be quiet!"
“This abandonment of Conservative principles not only led to him getting no credit from the voters for cutting National Insurance,” she continued.
“But also led to an even larger general election defeat as he continued to trash my record and promote Labour’s false narrative that the global rise in mortgage rates was somehow my fault.”
Read More: Shellshocked Liz Truss motionless on stage as she loses to Labour by just 600 votes
Ms Truss became the first former Prime Minister in nearly a century to lose their seat at last week's general election.
Labour recorded the biggest swing in election history to take Ms Truss' seat in South West Norfolk by just 600 votes.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss went head-to-head in the Tory leadership contest in 2022, with the former Chancellor repeatedly claiming his opponent's tax-cutting agenda would not work.
Mr Sunak was vindicated in the end after Ms Truss' mini-budget crashed the pound and sent mortgages spiralling.
In the end, Ms Truss lasted just 49 days in office, and was replaced by Mr Sunak.
Mr Sunak is not the only former Prime Minister Ms Truss had in her sights, but also blamed Tony Blair.
The ex-MP claimed “the seeds of this defeat go right back to 1997 and the way that the Conservative Party responded to the New Labour project, both in opposition and in government”.
She added: “Rather than taking on the Leftist agenda, far too often it was bought into – and the election result was our punishment for having done so.”
In total, the Conservatives were reduced to just 121 seats in last week's General Election, with Labour storming to victory in old Tory heartlands, including Norfolk.
