Buckle up! The Liz Truss era is here

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng arrive in Downing Street having been on a long political journey together. Both elected in 2010, they have co-written books setting out their shared economic agenda; they have co-founded party groups during their time in parliament; and now they will govern together. The future direction of the country, and the Tories’ electoral prospects, depend on the success of this new Downing Street partnership.

Their strategy is one of big economic gambles from day one. Chief among these is the big energy package, potentially costing over £100 billion, designed to ‘freeze’ energy prices for households and businesses. This will involve the state – future taxpayers, in other words – picking up the tab to protect today’s consumers from the current high prices. It’s an intervention on a par with furlough in both scale and cost, and will need to be financed with debt. It is bigger than anything the Blair or Cameron governments attempted.