James Heale James Heale

Simon Clarke: What the PM can learn from Liz Truss

Alamy 
issue 07 January 2023

After Liz Truss’s spectacular fall from power, it was hard to find Tories who were happy to admit to having supported her. ‘Trussonomics’ became a punchline. Most of her plans were scrapped, including, this week, her childcare proposals. But among the wreckage of the Truss experiment, there is one survivor who is willing to defend its principles, loudly and publicly. And now he’s waging a lonely fight on the backbenches.

‘If the leadership dramas have taught us anything, it is that a battle for the soul of the Tory party is under way’

Simon Clarke had little profile when he was a Treasury minister under Boris Johnson, but as Truss’s levelling up secretary he was one of the most vocal advocates of her ideas. When she was forced to abandon cutting the top rate of tax from 45p to 40p, Clarke deplored the U-turn. He is pro-growth, pro-enterprise and (he’d argue) pro-young.

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