Liz Truss – who has blamed her own downfall on ‘the establishment’ – said the ‘deep state’ is making decisions in Britain. Liz Truss has told a right wing conference in the US that “the British state is failing” and needs a Donald Trump-style ”MAGA” movement to save it.
The former British prime minister, who was in office for just 49 days, spoke on the fringes of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on Wednesday. Ms Truss – who has blamed her own downfall on “the establishment” – said the electorate is becoming increasingly angry because they are voting for change only to be disappointed as the “deep state” continues to make decisions.
“The same people are still making the decisions. It’s the deep state, it’s the unelected bureaucrats, it’s the judiciary,” she said. “And I think what ultimately will happen, what I hope to see, is a movement like you have in the US with Maga [‘Make America great again’], with CPAC, with all these organisations, that ultimately pushes change we all want. We want to have a British CPAC.”.
Responding, CPAC organiser Matt Schlapp replied: “It’s a deal!”. Earlier in the speech, Ms Truss said: “We now have a major problem in Britain that judges are making decisions that should be made by politicians”. Blaming reforms by her predecessor Tony Blair – who she argued gave power to an “unelected bureaucracy” – the former PM said the judiciary in Britain is “no longer accountable”.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that until those changes are reversed, we do not have a functioning country. The British state is now failing, is not working. The decisions are not being made by politicians.”. Her remarks came as Mr Trump sparked outrage for claiming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was “a dictator without elections”, with the US president’s remarks being rebuked by most mainstream political figures in the UK.
Both Sir Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch backed Mr Zelensky as Ukraine’s “democratically elected leader”, while former prime minister Boris Johnson said the US president’s comments “are not intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action”.
Ms Truss is set to address the main stage of CPAC on Thursday afternoon, giving a speech focusing on “the failing state”. In a preview of the speech, the former prime minister said: “The Britain I grew up in is gone. Things are getting worse, and nobody wants to avert course.”.
“It would be tempting to blame Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, and it is certainly true that they are guilty of an arrogant belief in technocracy for which they are now being punished”, she said. “But the problem is deeper and older than those two stooges.”.
