'I had a major setback': Liz Truss hints she won't 'walk away' in US speech
Lizz Truss defended her very short tenure as prime minister, even turning against Joe Biden, as ITV News' Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports
Words by ITV News Westminster Producer, Lucy McDaid
Liz Truss has vowed she won't be walking away from her political beliefs despite last year's "major setback", as she advocated for low taxes and greater resistance against authoritarian regimes in a US speech.
Talking to a right-wing think tank in Washington DC, the former prime minister claimed western nations have "appeased and accommodated" the likes of China and Russia, questioning whether or not they are "match fit" to take them on.
She also criticised a recent visit to China by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, calling it "a mistake".
While pushing her beliefs in a low tax economy in the speech, the Conservative backbencher went on to encourage both the UK and US to send fighter jets to Ukraine and fast-track the country's membership of NATO.
Opening the Margaret Thatcher Freedom lecture at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday, Britain's shortest-serving prime minister said "low taxes, limited government and private enterprise were what won the Cold War", arguing the model is now being "strangled into stagnation".
Ms Truss hit out at low growth rates in the UK and high public spending, prompting laughter in the audience when she said the Tony Blair era looks like "some kind of libertarian paradise".
"When I was in Number 10 Downing Street I tried to change that," Ms Truss insisted, but added that she underestimated "the scale of the resistance".
'Last autumn, I had a major setback,' admitted the former prime minister
"I don’t think anyone understands how hard it is to deliver change in government until you’ve tried it," she said.
But the former prime minister suggested she's not going anywhere anytime soon and made clear hints that she is only at the beginning of her political comeback.
She told audience members: "Last Autumn, I had a major setback. But I am not someone who gives up.
"I care too much about this agenda to walk away.
"And I know there are others who do too – both in the UK and the United States.
"I will be setting out over the coming months how we can take this battle of ideas forward."
Ms Truss, who served in Downing Street for just 49 days, was forced out of office after a disastrous mini budget featured £45 million of unfunded tax cuts and cost the UK economy £30 billion, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
But Ms Truss blamed "woke culture" for a lack of economic growth in the UK and the US.
"We've ended up in this culture where too many people in businesses expect the government to bail them out," Ms Truss said.
"Now, one of the core parts of Mrs Thatcher's creed was the idea of personal responsibility.
"The idea that it's you and your family, through your own enterprise, hard work and ingenuity, that will help create a better future.
"And that notion of personal responsibility has been eroded."
'All we have seen is accommodation and appeasement by the West', says Liz Truss
But, Ms Truss insisted, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have become "too big", warning: "If we don't change course now, the figures are going to get even worse."
In what appeared to be another attack on "woke" culture, the Conservative backbencher said: "The left have weaponised people’s concerns about the economy and the environment using terms like ‘fuel poverty’ and ‘climate emergency’ to call for anti-growth, socialist solutions."
"And rather than a cost of living crisis," she continued, "aren’t we in a ‘cost of big government crisis’?"
Ms Truss concluded her speech by warning of the threat of authoritarian regimes "and their unwitting allies in the anti-growth movement".
"We need to get organised about taking it on," she said. "And we need to fight the battle of ideas once again."
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