The Guardian’s Truss attack falls flat

The sound of moralising was in the air this morning, as Steerpike emerged bleary-eyed from his hangover. Is it Sunday already? No, just the standard self-righteous squawking from the usual suspects of the left. Today’s topic of sanctimonious one-upmanship? Leaked comments made by Liz Truss on the need for British workers to show ‘more graft’. Grab the smelling salts!

When were these comments made? Yesterday, in the face of the baying mob outside the Tory hustings? Last month when she unveiled her plan to get Britain out of the economic mire? No, er, back in the heady days of Theresa May’s government when Truss was Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Her full comments, reported by Mirror scoop queen Pippa Crerar in her first big Guardian splash, concern Britain’s century-long productivity problem. Truss says;

There’s a slight thing in Britain about wanting the easy answers. That’s my reflection on the election and what’s gone before it, and the referendum – we say it’s all Europe that’s causing these huge problems … it’s all these migrants causing these problems.