Truss fall

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Noel King: I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability. Liz Truss did. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills. They all were. But the UK Prime Minister then made her own contribution to the instability by jimmying with the country's economy, instituting tax cuts for the richest people with nary a plan to pay for them. Her 45 days in office were so tumultuous that people began to predict the end at the beginning. A British tabloid, the Daily Star, purchased a head of lettuce, set up a live video of the lettuce and asked, will Liz Truss outlast this lettuce? This lettuce outlasted Liz Truss, the live feed now says. Coming up on Today Explained.

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Noel King: It's Today Explained. Tom McTague, the Atlantic's man in London. What the hell has been happening in the United Kingdom? Well, nobody knows here. I'm sat here watching it with my wife and just utter sort of, we're both completely perplexed at what's happening. We've never seen anything like it. This is the shortest running premiership in history. The last prime minister who came anywhere near this died in office and she doesn't have that excuse. This is a terrible moment for the country.

Tom McTague: Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister after a protracted Conservative Party leadership contest over the summer, promising sweeping kind of Reaganite tax cuts to boost the British economy. I know that our beliefs resonate with the British people. Our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility. She comes in with this tub-thumping tax-cutting agenda. She introduces it a couple of weeks after she becomes prime minister. She couldn't do anything for the first 10 days because the Queen died almost immediately after she became prime minister. So as soon as she comes out of that period of mourning, she introduces these tax cuts and then all hell breaks loose.

Tom McTague: Early this morning, ahead of the Chancellor's statement, the pound was already falling against the dollar, based on what the markets knew was coming. As the Chancellor delivered his statement with surprise extra tax cuts funded by borrowing, the pound fell even more. The financial market's going to melt down, interest rates go through the roof, people's mortgages start spiralling out of control, anger starts going everywhere.

Noel King: I'm going to just blaze on into the questions. Lots from my listeners this morning. Carrie in Birchington says, what on earth were you thinking? The country was already in a state of recession. Another says, how can we ever trust the Conservatives with our economy again? And Lydia says, are you ashamed of what you've done? Are you? And Conservative MPs eventually just say enough and you have to go. And that's what's happened today.

Tom McTague: I was in the UK when she first announced the tax cuts and my friends there were freaking out about their mortgages. They were glued to the BBC. And Liz was like, we're doing this. And then two-ish weeks later, she reversed herself and was like, oh, actually, this is not going to work. It was very embarrassing. Why didn't she know any better? That's what she was elected to do, right? You know, and also I think it's a bit of a moment for Britain this. You know, Britain isn't the kind of country where this thing is supposed to happen, where the markets can get rid of a prime minister. You know, we're supposed to be stronger than that.

Tom McTague: You know, we're talking about scandals over parties in Downing Street. In a series of photos, eight people are visible without counting the photographer. Indoor gatherings were limited to two people at the time during the second national lockdown. We weren't talking about economic Armageddon, you know, or catastrophes like that. When you look back at it now, it felt so small. But it was chaotic. And what she offered was kind of, well, what she promised in a way was Johnsonism without all of that chaos. You know, it was, I'll carry on the Johnson agenda. I'll be positive about Britain's ambitions and what we can do in life. And we'll get, you know, we'll get through this. We'll beat the doomsters and the gloomsters. and we will prove them all wrong. But she was far more radical than Johnson. You know, Johnson actually raised taxes. She promised to cut them. Johnson wanted to rebalance the British economy away from the Southeast. She came in and she slashed the limits on bankers' bonuses, which would help the people in the Southeast of England, which is already, you know, doing so well.

Tom McTague: Although she had this promise of being Johnson without the chaos, she was actually very, very different. So Liz Truss takes office And she says, essentially, I'm going to do trickle-down economics. Everybody starts talking about Ronald Reagan again. It's awesome. I guess the question is, why? What was going on in the country more broadly that made this new prime minister say, I am going to take dramatic and very risky steps with this country's economy? Why didn't she just come in easy, look around a bit, and then start making decisions? I think for a number of reasons. First of all, Britain has been growing at a slower rate than usual ever really ever since the 2008 financial crisis you know you've got to think of Britain as a much smaller country than the United States where we're much more heavily dominated by financial services you know we're a kind of you know New York state without all the rest of the country you know we rely on the city of London you know our version of Wall Street as a great engine of the British economy, which then provides the tax revenue for the government to redistribute in social and public services.

Tom McTague: You know, that exploded in 2008 and required the government to bail out the banks, just like in the US. Yeah. We had to bail them out and we've been living with the consequences ever since. So you have that in the background and I think you have to always think of that when you think of all of the things that came next, the austerity, Brexit later. You know, there was a general sense of malaise in the country, you know, a frustration with how things are going. And then you have Brexit. Now, Brexit then, I think, to some extent, makes things harder. You know, you've taken yourself out of this giant European market. So you have trade friction on top of what would have ordinarily been, you know, difficult circumstances anyway. so you've got these two things so you have to start doing something different you have to try something new because actually the economy is not doing very well and it hasn't been doing very well for a long time so there was a there is a certain legitimacy to her analysis at least to say look we need to do something differently if we're going to achieve different results we can't just carry on doing what we've always been doing and in the end I think all of that pressure together forced this radical prime minister to take one gamble too many, and it blew up in her face.

Noel King: It's early here as we speak, Tom. You've got a couple hours on me. How did she resign? What happened over there?

Tom McTague: Well, we had a completely chaotic day in Parliament yesterday where you just had sort of open rebellion and inter-party warfare. within the Conservative Party over various issues, complicated votes in the House of Commons where Tory MPs were just saying, no, sod this, I'm not voting with her. We can't go on like this. This whole affair is inexcusable. It is just, it is a pitiful reflection on the Conservative Parliamentary Party at every level. Overnight, you had more chaos. And then this morning, you had a guy called Graham Brady, who is like a kind of conservative party bigwig. To get rid of a conservative leader, you have to put in letters of no confidence and you put them into this guy, Graham Brady. And once it got to a certain level, you know, essentially more than half the party had put in these letters of no confidence. He then has the job of going to number 10 Downing Street and saying to the prime minister, I'm sorry, prime minister, it's time to go.

Noel King: Number 10 have confirmed that Liz Truss is meeting Graham Brady. Number 10 have confirmed that this is at Liz Truss's request. The brutal thing about British politics is that there's really only one rule on which everything rests. And that is, you have to command a majority of the House of Commons. If you cannot do that, you're done. You're gone. That's the whole point. If you can command a majority, then you're the Prime Minister. Now she got to a point where she couldn't command a majority of her own MPs and you know therefore she can't command a majority of the House of Commons itself. She just doesn't have a majority. She got no power. So she had to resign.

Tom McTague: I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.

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Noel King: Let's be honest. Are you happy with your job? Like, really happy? The unfortunate fact is that a huge number of people can't say yes to that. Far too many of us are stuck in a job we've outgrown, or one we never wanted in the first place. But still, we stick it out, and we give reasons like, what if the next move is even worse? I've already put years into this place, and maybe the most common one, isn't everyone kind of miserable at work? But there's a difference between reasons for staying and excuses for not leaving. It's time to get unstuck. It's time for Strawberry.me. They match you with a certified career coach who helps you go from where you are to where you actually want to be. Your coach helps you get clear on your goals, create a plan, build your confidence, and keeps you accountable along the way. So don't leave your career to chance. Take action and own your future with a professional coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me slash unstuck to claim a special offer. That's strawberry.me slash unstuck.

Noel King: We import two thirds of our cheese. That is a disgrace. It's Today Explained. We're back with Tom McTague. He is London correspondent for The Atlantic magazine. Tom, Liz Truss is out. Does the United Kingdom have a prime minister right at this moment?

Tom McTague: Yes, we currently have a prime minister. She's still Liz Truss. So she's resigned as Conservative Party leader rather than prime minister. She'll remain in post, you know, with a finger on the nuclear button and all of that kind of stuff until the Conservative Party choose a replacement. Now, she said that that will happen in this super speeded up time frame of a week. So what you're now going to see is all of the Conservative MPs trying to figure out who is going to emerge from their number to become her replacement.

Noel King: Let's talk about who's on deck. So you've got the man that she beat in the Conservative Party leadership contest over the summer, which is a guy called Rishi Sunak. I'm taking my ideas around the country. I'm talking to all of you, our members across the country, about what I think is best for our country at a really difficult time.

Tom McTague: Now, this guy was Boris Johnson's finance minister. He's chancellor. He sort of steered the country through the pandemic. He was seen as a very effective politician, a very good communicator, competent guy. Now, as part of his job, he raised taxes to pay for lots of different things, more money to old age care, to the health service and to deal with the enormous costs of the pandemic itself. So he really lost that conservative leadership contest because he defended that record of tax rises and didn't promise big tax cuts. He said, look, he was a tax-cutting guy by inclination, he's a conservative, he supported Brexit, but he thought that it was the wrong time to do it, you would spook the markets.

Noel King: So he's kept his powder dry. He's not said anything during this whole crisis. So he is one standout potential. We've also got a guy called Jeremy Hunt, who's the current chancellor, who came in and reversed everything this trust promised and became this dominant figure overnight. Although the prime minister and I are both committed to cutting corporation tax, on Friday she listened to concerns about the mini budget and confirmed we will not proceed with a cut to corporation tax announced.

Tom McTague: So there's him and then there's another candidate from the election called Penny Mordaunt. I am going to keep calm and carry on and I would suggest everyone else do the same. If she won she would become Britain's fourth female Prime Minister. All of them conservatives interestingly enough from Margaret Thatcher through to Theresa May, Liz Truss. So that, again, would be an interesting choice. She's more of a centrist Tory. She's still fairly conservative, but she's not really linked to one section of the party or the other. She might win as a kind of unity candidate, somebody who could bring all the different wings of the Tory party together in an attempt not to get annihilated at the next election.

Noel King: So they're really the candidates at the moment. But of course, you know, this is crazy. This is a one you know shootout the person who left holding the gun is going to be Prime Minister which isn't a bad thing is it if you enter that competition now.

Tom McTague: Hey, Tom, forgive me if I missed a nuance or a wrinkle, but do British people vote on this?

Noel King: Yeah, no, we don't. Oh, wow. So actually, Liz Truss is a rare prime minister in never having faced an election as Prime Minister. But usually they do. But it's a parliamentary system. So what happens is you elect a parliament, you know, like, you know, your House of Representatives or Senate, and Mitch McConnell or whoever emerges as the leader of the majority, you know, in that house, they become Prime Minister, right? That's how it works. But the difference between our system and your system is that in between the elections, so the elections happen every four to five years for the House of Commons, it's not set like yours, it can't go longer than five. But if you were to elect a parliament like we did in 2019, for instance, with Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party, he emerges as prime minister, you can get rid of him, as we did, after three years. And there's another two years to run of the parliament, but somebody else can come and replace him. They don't need to go for an election until the end of the parliament.

Noel King: Hey, of all those names that you mentioned, there was one you left out. On this side of the Atlantic, we're reading that some of you in the UK want Boris Johnson back. Is that true?

Tom McTague: So yeah, I should have included him, really. Your petition launched by the website Conservative Post to return Boris Johnson to number 10 has received 10,000 signatures. Yep, of course, he only left six weeks ago. Look, I think right now it's unlikely. He's on holiday in the Caribbean, would you believe? He'd have to come back and throw his name in the ring. I'm sure he's tempted. The argument for Boris Johnson is a little bit like the argument for an election, right? He won a huge majority in 2019 on a manifesto to deliver certain things, taking Britain out of the European Union, rebalancing the country so that poorer parts of the country did better than they're currently doing. All of these kind of promises that he made. There are some people in the Conservative Party who say, look, he was dumped unfairly and he had a mandate from the public to deliver his manifesto. He should have been allowed to see that through for the five years. And then if he was going to be rejected, he should have been rejected by the country in an election rather than by his party in Parliament.

Noel King: Now, most Tory MPs that I speak to say, look, there might be truth in that argument, but he just proved unfit personally for office. His policies were kind of fine and they were, you know, for the Conservative Party. But he just was too reckless personally in office. He didn't pay enough attention to the rules. His behavior was unbecoming. And that's the reason he can't do it.

Tom McTague: Tom, what do you think this all says about the UK's place in the world? This is a powerful country that today looks really, really, really messy. and even a bit immature.

Noel King: Yeah, well, I mean, I think they would be fair conclusions. You know, a lot of people in Britain feel a bit embarrassed, or not just a bit embarrassed, but very embarrassed about what's going on. You know, the front page of The Economist today, slightly controversially, has Liz Truss mocked up as an Italian. And it's kind of saying that Britain is Britta-ly. We're turning into Italy, but without the good weather and the good food. So, look, I think there is some truth in that. Other people are more pessimistic and say, Well, actually, the really worrying scenario is being like Argentina, you know, a kind of country that was at the turn of the 20th century was as wealthy as the United States. You know, it was a place where people from Europe went to just like they went to Chicago or Washington. They went to Buenos Aires. Obviously, that doesn't happen now because Argentina is a very incredibly poor country that has been gripped by terrible politics, terrible economics, constant crises from which it just doesn't seem capable of escaping.

Noel King: I mean, I don't share that. I think in some ways the constitution here works in that if people aren't up to the job, Boris Johnson or Liz Truss, they get kicked out pretty brutally and they get hopefully at some point replaced by somebody competent. But, you know, right now it looks like the game is up for the Tories. They are just despised at the moment in the country because nobody accepts getting poorer, you know, for a long time. And they've just made people poorer. But this is only a week. In a week's time, it looks like we're going to have a new prime minister who will come in. But look, generally, there's nobody who's questioning Britain's foreign policy support for Ukraine, the special relationship with the US, any of that. I think to some extent, what we're seeing is like the churn under the water, you know, when a swan is gliding over the surface. We've inverted that. All we can see right now is the legs spinning furiously underneath. But to some degree, the swan is just still on top, not very moving very fast, but nothing's actually fundamentally changed.

Noel King: Today's show was produced by Miles Bryan and Avishay Artsy. It was edited by Matt Collette and engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey. Fact-checking was a team effort led by Laura Bullard. Thanks to all. I'm Noelle King. It's Today Explained. Yeah.