From Nuclear Weapons to Corporate Tax: The Liz Truss Flip-Flop Story | Liz Truss

FFrom advocating for the abolition of the monarchy as a Liberal Democrat to her latest atrocious reversal, Liz Truss is no stranger to flip-flops on policy positions. Here are some of those shifting views.

Nuclear weapons

Politicians can surely be forgiven for changing the values ​​they had when they were younger, as in the case of Truss’ seemingly enthusiastic support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, whose marches she joined with her mother. .

What was never clear, however, was when she changed her mind in that she said she was ‘ready to do it’ when asked during the race to the leadership of the Conservatives if they were willing to push the button, even if it meant global annihilation.

Abolition of the monarchy

As a teenager, Truss spoke passionately at the Lib Dem conference in 1994 in favor of a motion to abolish the monarchy, telling delegates: “We don’t believe that people are born to rule.

Asked by reporters on the Conservative leadership campaign trail when she had changed her mind, Truss replied with a smile: “Almost immediately after giving that speech.”

Brexit

As a member of David Cameron’s government, Truss campaigned to remain in the 2016 referendum on UK membership of the EU. She said part of the reason she was campaigning for the UK to stay in the EU was for the benefit of her daughters, then aged 10 and 7.

“I was wrong and I’m willing to admit I was wrong,” she said afterwards, adding that some of the “omens of doom” never kicked in.

Protecting the UK steel industry

As Secretary of International Trade, Truss had wanted to remove tariffs on certain types of imported steel as part of a plan to reduce trade barriers. She faced opposition from the British steel industry, which predicted her proposals would cost thousands of jobs.

She abandoned the plans after losing the counter argument put forward by then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.

Lower wages abroad London

During the Tory leadership campaign, Truss was forced to backtrack on plans to cut civil service wages outside London after an outcry from Tory MPs and the Tory Mayor of Tees Valley.

It was the first major blunder of the Truss campaign, with a supporter of his rival Rishi Sunak calling it his “dementia tax moment”, referring to when former Tory Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to turn around on its social protection policy.

“Alms” on the cost of living

Truss has been accused of making a second major U-turn in a week during her leadership campaign after her staff tried to downplay suggestions that there would be no ‘handouts’ to help millions of struggling people through an already worsening cost of living crisis.

The row concerned an interview she gave to the Financial Times in which she said she would “consider what more can be done” in light of the Bank of England’s warnings of a 15-month recession and a double-digit inflation that lasts well. in 2023. She added, “The way I would do things is in a conservative way to reduce the tax burden, not hand out handouts.”

Energy Saving Tips

Truss had ignored his own climate advisers in opposing an energy-saving campaign this winter, it emerged over the weekend, as one of his ministers said a news program utility to help people reduce their energy bills had been withdrawn for cost reasons.

Yet in an apparent row over opposition from her own MPs, the prime minister said this week the government was working on a plan to help people and businesses use energy more efficiently.

Permanent Secretary of the Treasury

A veteran Mandarin was appointed as the top Treasury official on Monday after Truss backtracked on plans to bring in an “outsider” as part of attempts to “shake up” the ministry.

A Whitehall source confirmed the post was offered last week to another candidate, Antonia Romeo, an experienced permanent secretary but seen as a reformer with no Treasury experience.

Additional tax rate

Truss’ government abandoned plans to abolish the top 45% income tax rate in a humiliating reversal, after a growing Conservative revolt against politics and a turbulent market reaction.

Announce the decision early in the morning Tweeter on Monday, October 3, Kwarteng said, “We understand and we’ve listened.”

The Chancellor said the decision to cut tax for people with incomes of £150,000 or more “has become a distraction from our overriding mission to address the challenges facing our country”.

Exceptional tax

Renewable energy companies will see their revenues capped in England and Wales, after the Truss government bowed earlier this week in pressure to clamp down on skyrocketing profits.

The move, announced late on Tuesday night, prompted immediate accusations that No 10 had made “another screaming U-turn”, after previously rejecting calls to impose a windfall tax on power companies.

Corporation tax

Truss made another U-turn in front of the cameras at a brief Downing Street press conference on Friday on his flagship corporation tax cut plan.

In the government’s mini-budget, then-Chancellor Kwarteng said corporation tax would be frozen at 19%, scrapping a 25% increase planned by his predecessor. Just hours after sacking Kwarteng, Truss said she had decided to stick with the rise, which would boost public finances by £18billion.