Liz Truss is popular with the right wing of the Brexit-supporting Conservative Party. Former Liberal Democrat activist Liz Truss campaigned against Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s but now claims to be a pro-Thatcher flame keeper.
Liz Truss is set to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after winning the race to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party. But how and by what strategy is he the new Prime Minister of Britain?
It goes without saying that Mary Elizabeth Truss is on a political journey. Truss may not be a household name like his predecessor at No. 10 Downing Street. He was not even the first choice of Tory MPs in the race to succeed Boris Johnson.
But his pledge to return to core conservative values such as cutting taxes and shrinking the state has been proven right, and members of the party who make the final decision on whether to take over from Johnson also want to know where Truss stands.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was a Johnson loyalist until the leadership became bitter. Grassroots Tory supporters see Margaret Thatcher-like qualities of tenacity, inflexibility and determination in Liz Truss. Despite shifting political positions and loyalties over the years, these words are often heard when friends and family members describe him as having an ‘ambitious’ character.
Lease trusses at a glance
Age: 47 years
Birthplace: Oxford
Home: London and Norfolk
Education: Roundhay School, Leeds and Oxford University
Family: Truss married accountants Hugh and Leary. They have two daughters in their family.
Parliamentary Constituency: South West Norfolk
In 2017, her brother Francis recalled her sister Liz Truss’s teenage love affair with vegetarians, saying Truss had a well-rounded opinionated personality. He has a clear opinion about what he wants.
‘When you go to a restaurant, you can be 14 years old. But he gives informed opinions about what he wants and doesn’t want.’
Maurizio Giuliano, a contemporary of Liz Truss at Oxford University. After finishing university, the two classmates met once at a Liberal Democrat function. How did Maurice see Truss at the university? He said Liz Truss was different from other students.
‘I remember he was dressed very neatly compared to other 18- to 19-year-olds. Truss behaved like a real grown man compared to what we were at that age.’
Born in Oxford in 1975, Truss describes his maths professor father and nurse mother as ‘leftists’. At a very young age, Truss was taken to the nuclear disarmament movement by his mother.
At the time, an organization strongly opposed the Thatcher government’s decision to allow US nuclear warheads to be stationed at RAF Greenham Common, west of London. Truss also joined mother in the movement called by that organization. Although he is now a proud Conservative in Leeds. And he was a Scottish Liberal at the time.
When Truss was four his family moved to Paisley, just west of Glasgow. In an interview with the BBC, he also recalled shouting ‘Maggie, maggie, maggie – oat, oat, oat’ in a Scottish accent as he took part in the procession.
Liz Truss’ family later moved to Leeds, where she attended Roundhay Secondary School. During that time he saw children fail and break down due to low expectations.
Truss studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. He was well liked by his friends, although he was known to talk a lot among friends.
Liz Truss was involved in many campaigns and activities at Oxford during her academic career. But the attraction towards politics was more. He was elected president of the Liberal Democrats at Oxford University.
At a party conference in 1994, he gave his opinion in favor of abolishing the monarchy. He said, We Liberal Democrats believe in the idea of opportunity for all. Certain people are just born to rule, we don’t believe that.
Not only this, he also campaigned for the decriminalization of cannabis. Lib Dem classmate Alan Renwick said in 2017, ‘Liz was a staunch libertarian.’
