If Liz Truss is confirmed today as PM, she would be the most experienced new occupant at No 10, since John Major’s 1990 tenure.
Truss’s impressive record of holding five Cabinet posts over eight years bears comparison with Major, who was Foreign Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Chancellor before replacing Mrs Thatcher.
Comparatively, Theresa May, Gordon Brown, Chancellor for ten, and Boris Johnson who served as Foreign Secretary for two-years each, held only one cabinet post before taking the reins. Tony Blair and David Cameron, on the other hand, were not government ministers prior to taking over as top officials.
Truss’s impressive record of holding five Cabinet posts over eight years bears comparison with Major, who was Foreign Secretary, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Chancellor before replacing Mrs Thatcher
But Truss shouldn’t rest on her laurels in her new role — and no one understands this better than Sir Anthony Seldon, who has written biographies of seven PMs.
He says: ‘Nothing in life prepares incomers for No 10 . . . Truss is not certain how Truss will do in her office. All we know is that the inheritance is bloody.’
Seldon, writing in the New Statesman says that Boris’ personal failures caused him to be fatally injured.
‘Truss needs to rebuild trust . . . She is not afraid to admit her errors in the past. But once she gets to No 10, it won’t be hard to say sorry. She will be a lesser Prime Minister if she heeds that advice.’
Was that Rishi Sunak’s swansong on the Laura Kuenssberg show on BBC TV yesterday?
The Labour MP Jess Phillips thinks so: ‘There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that he will stand down and head back on a fancy plane to California before the rest of the country can say blackout.’
Just call me Michael Groove
Michael Gove (a Cabinet veteran who has served under Cameron May Boris) will be absent from the Truss ministerial group.
Gove, who was on holiday in Ibiza last weekend, was seen in an unbuttoned shirt as he poured himself a glass of water in Ushuaia’s nightclub.
Naturally, his partying antics have once again been the subject of a frenetic online chat, as they were after his dance moves — or lack of them — were caught on video in a nightclub in Aberdeen
Gove enjoyed a holiday on Ibiza last Wednesday, as he was photographed in an unbuttoned top pouring himself one of the Ushuaia cocktails
Naturally, his partying antics have once again been the subject of a frenetic online chat, as they were after his dance moves — or lack of them — were caught on video in a nightclub in Aberdeen.
‘My technique was even compared with Finnish PM Sanna Marin — not entirely favourably,’ he wrote in The Spectator. ‘But still, it was flattering to be mentioned in the same breath.’
Lord Owen (1977-1979), a former Foreign Minister, had warning words for Parliamentarians who refused to listen to our leader-inwaiting. ‘It will be a terrible mistake to underestimate Liz Truss,’ he tells me. ‘I made that mistake with Margaret Thatcher. She visited me in Africa when I was Foreign Secretary, and she was Leader Of The Opposition. She seemed like a complete lightweight to me. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I will not make that mistake with Liz Truss.’
If Liz Truss wins today, Tory backbencher Michael Fabricant will know why Sunak lost. ‘Boris is popular among Conservative members. Rishi is seen as the planner and organiser of his downfall, plotting for months against him.’ And slippery Sunak never warned Boris he was quitting as Chancellor. This was the first time that Rishi heard about it in the media.
The BBC isn’t sparing any expense now that Eurovision 2023 has fallen into its lap.
Jobs are being advertised for two managing directors for the event, with salaries upwards of £100,000
Jobs are being advertised for two managing directors for the event, with salaries upwards of £100,000 even though the roles last less than a year — from September to June.
In the meantime, BBC News is firing staff to cut costs.
Sturgeon, a model for delusion
Nicola Sturgeon was a Scottish First Minister who took delight in making fun of Liz Truss, apparently for seeking advice on how to appear in Vogue.
Truss is able to laugh the last time.
Nicola Sturgeon was a Scottish First Minister who took delight in making fun of Liz Truss, apparently for seeking advice about how she could grace Vogue magazine’s pages.
Sturgeon apparently wanted to be sure that she made the front cover of glossy mag before her summer photo spread.
Cue a withering response from Vogue to Sturgeon’s office. ‘She’s not Kate Moss you know . . .’