London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

Liz Truss wanted government turned up to 11, says former aide

Liz Truss wanted government turned up to 11, says former aide

Liz Truss took a "Spinal Tap approach" to government, with the volume turned up to 11, her former chief speechwriter has told.

Asa Bennett said Ms Truss demanded "fast action" to put "rocket boosters" on the British economy.

It was a "bitter regret" that it "didn't come off like that", he added.

Ms Truss's government lasted just seven weeks after its mini-budget spooked financial markets, prompting Tory MPs to revolt and forcing her resignation.

Spinal Tap are a spoof heavy metal group created by a team of comedians and musicians, who famously had amplifiers that were "one louder" than 10.

Mr Bennett, who had previously worked for Ms Truss when she headed the Department for International and the Foreign Office, was interviewed by the BBC's Nick Robinson for a Radio 4 documentary, Liz Truss's Big Gamble.


'Trusted her instincts'


Asked whether she regretted her approach in Downing Street, Mr Bennett said: "I think Liz felt that she's gambled before in her life and then she could gamble again on this.

"And yes, the stakes would be high, but the pay-off was worth it in the sense of taking that fast action.

"And at the same time Liz was someone who knew what she thought, known it for years, and so finally had the biggest chance yet to make her programme a reality.

"Of course, it will be no doubt a bitter regret for us all and her most of all that it didn't come off like that."

He said if Ms Truss had been made aware of the risks, she was generally someone who would have trusted her instincts.

"And so when she hears these things, she's someone who feels that she can have the courage of her convictions.

She's heard all the views. She was at the Treasury [as chief secretary] in the past, and she would be clear in her mind how to do things better."

Asa Bennett says Ms Truss wanted to 'unleash Britain's potential'


Mr Bennett said the then-prime minister regarded the Treasury's approach to economic policy as "this sort of tired, stale, status quo sort of thinking".

"And that is why she felt it really was time to take the hard decisions and root it out by trying to break with the sort of consensus, the cosy consensus that meant that Britain had been flagging along with international competitiveness," he added.


'Take things up a notch'


On the decision to sack the Treasury's top civil servant, Sir Tom Scholar, Mr Bennett suggested Ms Truss saw him as a symbol of the "senior Treasury civil servants who have presided in her mind over persistently low growth, chronically and persistently low productivity".

The Treasury orthodoxy "was something that just had to change because it was not able to unleash Britain's potential in her view", he said.

Spinal Tap perform in San Francisco in 1984


He said Ms Truss had spent years sitting around the cabinet table and felt she knew what the solutions were to the country's economic problems. "She also knew that this was the moment to put rocket boosters on the economy and get growth going."

She was, he said, "someone who would always try and take things up a notch. I think she always liked to be the one that was ready to push the envelope and would only back down if there was good reason".


'Human hand grenade'


"I think Liz was someone who would take this sort of Spinal Tap approach, turn it up to 11, and only if necessary, turn it down again," he added.

Boris Johnson's former top aide Dominic Cummings dubbed Ms Truss the "human hand grenade".

Mr Bennett said Ms Truss came to regard the nickname as "a compliment, not an insult".

"She's been dismissed and mocked by people in Westminster and the media over the years... and so she's found then that she could laugh these things off.

"She can embrace the jokes, and that's a part of her personality. Then she could see that she was bullet-proof as a result."

Six days before Ms Truss announced she would be resigning as prime minister, she sacked her long-time political ally and friend, Kwasi Kwarteng, as chancellor.

Mr Bennett said that was very hard for her. "Liz and Kwasi are very, very close friends, longstanding friends. They lived in the same area of London. They'd known each other for a while.

"They had written books together. They knew that they both thought the same way about what needed to be done.

"And so that's why it was such a hard decision, no doubt, for her to have to decide that he had to go at least to try and save her premiership."

Most of the mini-budget's tax-cutting measures were then ditched.

In her farewell speech outside No 10, Ms Truss defended her low-tax vision, saying: "We simply can not afford to be a low-growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth."

But in an earlier interview, she said she took responsibility for going "too far, too fast" with the tax cuts in the mini-budget.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
×