Liz Truss was born in 1975, in Oxford, into a hard left wing family. As a child they took her to street protests. Many who started life with this disadvantage would have been stuck in its disgusting rut for life. But Liz used her brain to apply critical thinking to politics and to make an intellectual journey. At Merton College, Oxford, she made a big move to the right by joining the Liberal Democrats, in fact she became their university president. After Truss left Oxford she became a commercial manager at Shell and then Economics Director at Cable and Wireless. This exposure to the real world moved her further away from the left. She joined the Conservative Party. But this was not the end of the intellectual journey. Once inside the Party she saw that the only way to deliver good governance to the British people was to be a Thatcherite.

Conservative Home has regular polls of Conservative activists so as to rate the Cabinet. To see who would be the person most likely to replace Boris Johnson (who really needs to go) as Prime Minister. And it is Liz Truss who has consistently headed these polls. But don’t get your hopes up, the favourite very rarely becomes Conservative Party leader.

Liz Truss was made Parliamentary Under Secretary for Education (Margaret Thatcher’s old ministry) in 2012. She was promoted to  Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2014. Then to Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor in 2016. To Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2017. To International Trade Secretary (negotiating our post Brexit trade deals) in 2019. And to Foreign Secretary in 2021. A meteoric rise. This has given her knowledge and experience across all the great ministries of state. She has been competent and hard working and hasn’t dropped any clangers. Which makes a very big change indeed from our current Prime Minister.

The Conservative Party is a broad church. From Boris Johnson, who is well to the left of Tony Blair, to Enoch Powell supporters. Liz Truss is a free market, small state Thatcherite. In 2011 and 2012 she wrote think tank papers. And in 2011 she founded the Free Enterprise Group, which has been supported by over 40 other Conservative MPs, co-authoring the book After the Coalition which championed Thatcherism. In 2012 she co-authored Britannia Unchained, an influential book once more promoting Thatcherism as the way forwards. All this demonstrates her critical thinking and ability to apply intellect to politics. And that the left really dislike her (HERE) proves that she is doing things right.

But all is not perfect. At Oxford she did PPE. A lightweight subject for career politicians. She compensated for this with a real world business career and by studying to become a management accountant. Then, in the Brexit debate she supported remain. She didn’t have any option in this because her boss at the time was George Osborne, a devout remainer. After the referendum Truss supported the democratic result (unlike many politicians) and told the BBC Daily Politics: “I believed there would be massive economic problems but those haven’t come to pass and I’ve also seen the opportunities. The other thing is it was a  big moment on June 23rd when British people voted to leave and it was an expression about what kind of country we wanted to be and I think that has changed the debate in this country as well”. A third problem is her support of giving away 0.7% of our GNI to other countries, in so called “aid”. Giving lots of money to rich people in poor countries. Whilst there are many in Britain who are far more deserving. Then there is Ayanda Capital who won a £250 million PPE deal last year, after it was brokered by the company’s senior adviser, Andrew Mills, who was also an adviser for the government’s Board of Trade, chaired by Liz Truss. This deal was massively bungled with  50 million masks supplied by the company that could not be used by the NHS, because they had the wrong type of straps. (Ayanda say government officials made the mistake, claiming it supplied masks to the specification agreed).

But, overall, the package Truss presents really is one of the very best available to lead this country. Other contenders might be Dominic Raab and Jacob Rees-Mogg. The most important thing is getting rid of Boris Johnson as soon as possible, he is a disaster for this country.