'National embarrassment' Liz Truss hints at new bid for Tory leadership

Evening Standard

Liz Truss was blasted as a “national embarrassment” on Monday as she refused to rule out running for Conservative leader again despite her disastrous tenure as the shortest-lived prime minister in history."I have unfinished business, and I think the Conservative Party has unfinished business,” she told LBC when asked if she would stand again if the beleaguered Rishi Sunak quits the role. She added: “It's never wise to rule anything out in politics.”

Transcript

00:00 And it strikes me that the whole message from this book is that you have

00:05 unfinished business and I wonder whether you still have that sort of political

00:10 spark, as the book indicates that you do, that sees a prominent role for yourself

00:15 not as a commentator in the future but as an active participant. I mean if the

00:20 Conservatives lose the next election would you want to play an active part in

00:25 a future Tory administration? I definitely have unfinished business, definitely. And I

00:30 think the Conservative Party has unfinished business. I think if we're

00:34 honest with ourselves we haven't done enough to reverse the Blair legacy. That

00:41 is what we need to be. And you clearly see Rishi Sunak as part of that. What we need to be honest about. I mean I've

00:46 you know I've said what I've said about Rishi Sunak in the leadership

00:51 election and I say more in the book. I think the problems go much wider

00:56 than any one person. They are about what the Conservatives stand for and that's

01:02 what I'm interested in because unless we have a Conservative Parliamentary Party

01:07 that is committed to that kind of reform it's very very difficult to deliver. So

01:13 what do I want to see? I want to see more Conservative candidates coming

01:18 forward who believe in these ideas and understand the need to change and are

01:23 really committed Conservatives. I want to see a flourishing of Conservative ideas.

01:29 You know in the 70s after you had the post-war consensus you then had new

01:36 ideas emerging, new people putting those ideas forward. You had an intellectual

01:41 argument and one of one of my many frustrations with the media is I don't

01:46 think these ideas are talked about enough and I think people love talking

01:50 about who is going to be a future leader of the Conservative Party or who's up

01:54 who's down rather than what what do we actually need to do.

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