Liz Truss takes swipe at Joe Biden as she defends failed tax-slashing plans

12 April 2023 , 16:32

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The 49-day PM described her rapid exit from office as a 'major setback' (Image: AP)

Shameless ex-PM Liz Truss attempted to revive her failed tax-slashing plans today as she took a swipe at the US President Joe Biden and the IMF.

Britain's shortest-serving Prime Minister was accused of having "zero shame" before she blamed the "co-ordinated resistance" during her disastrous time in No10.

In a speech at a right-wing think-tank in the US, the 49-day PM described her rapid exit from office as a "major setback" but said: "I care too much to give up".

At the doomed mini-Budget last year Ms Truss's plans caused economic meltdown and mortgage rates to soar with her unfunded tax cuts for the super wealthy.

But she failed to accept responsibility and instead blamed others in her speech today.

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She claimed: "My plans for tax cuts and supply side reform were about making Britain more competitive. They were about making us a more successful country.

The ex-PM was accused of having 'zero shame' (Frank Augstein/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

"Those plans were backed by Conservative members across the country. But we faced co-ordinated resistance.

"We didn't just face co-ordinated resistance from inside the Conservative Party, or even inside the British corporate establishment, we faced it from the IMF and even from President Biden."

At the time the US President said he "wasn't the only one" who thought her plans to abolish the 45p top rate of tax for the wealthiest was a "mistake".

In her speech at the Heritage Foundation in the US she criticised the UK's ban on fracking and called for a "fast-track" NATO membership for Ukraine.

She also hit out at the French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent visit to China to meet Xi Jinping, saying it was a "sign of weakness".

"The idea that we can treat China as just a another global player is wrong," she said.

"It is a totalitarian regime and we need to adapt our policies accordingly and we need to be much more sceptical about what is said by China and what their promises are. And we need to make sure that we are working together as an alliance.

"So I don't agree at all with the visit by Ursula von der Leyen and Macron. I think it was a mistake. I think it showed a divide in the West which doesn't exist.

Posting on social media ahead of Ms Truss's speech, the Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle said: "Zero self awareness and zero shame".

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