Victory for new Prime Minister Liz Truss is 'breath of fresh air'
New Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Liz Truss will be a “breath of fresh air”, according to Bishop’s Stortford political pundit Nick de Bois.
As the Foreign Secretary’s victory over former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak was announced at lunchtime on Monday (September 5) – she polled 81,326 party members' votes to Rishi Sunak's 60,399 in a turnout of 82.6% – the TalkRADIO and TalkTV presenter analysed why the 47-year-old was the members’ choice.
Miss Truss has been MP for South West Norfolk since 2010 and is also women and equalities minister.
Nick joined the House of Commons at the same time, serving a single term as Tory MP for Enfield North. He was ready for a return in 2019 when he reached the short list to be the Conservative candidate for the Hertford and Stortford seat but was pipped to the post by Julie Marson.
He said: “Liz ran a campaign that understood precisely what the Conservative party members wanted: lower taxes, smaller state and a pro-growth agenda.
“Her willingness to challenge the orthodox way of doing things in the past and thereby not repeat the mistakes of the past is a breath of fresh air.
“Most recently her willingness to treat the cost of energy as the number one priority for both business and households was the final reassurance that secured her win.”
He was blunt about the reasons for Rishi Sunak’s failure. According to him, the 42-year-old MP for Richmond, who joined the Commons in 2015, failed to understand the mood of members.
“Having secured the parliamentary party approval, he and his advisors conversely misread the electorate he was pitching to until too late," said Nick. "He pivoted and changed tack on policy announcements, which lost confidence in him as opposed to winning support. But he remains a significant political figure and will, I am sure, remain active in Parliament.”
Nick, who was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours this summer for his work as chairman of the VisitEngland advisory board, returned to Westminster in 2018 to join the Department for Exiting the European Union as chief of staff and special advisor to the then Secretary of State Dominic Raab, most recently Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor.
He remains close to the corridors of power and spent the first Covid-19 lockdown penning a political thriller, Fatal Ambition, based on the fictional events at Westminster following the departure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Nick has ruled out a real-life return to 10 Downing Street for the 58-year-old MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
“Boris Johnson is and will remain a huge political figure. Even his opponents recognise that he is a politician with rock star appeal having drawn an electoral coalition right across the country and reaching all age groups that propelled him to power.
“But, like many rock stars, indeed many of us, he was flawed and that ultimately did for him. The idea, however, that he will return as leader of the Conservative Party is for the birds.
“His route back would mean a bid for the leadership when the post became vacant and that is only going to happen if – and that will be a big if with Liz Truss as the leader – the Conservatives were to lose the next election. And Johnson would not want to be the leader of the opposition.”
* Fatal Ambition is available from https://www.politicos.co.uk/products/fatal-ambition-a-political-novel-by-nick-de-bois or on Kindle from Amazon at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09D8LYR13/ref=sr_1_1_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Fatal+ambition+nick+de+Bois&qid=1629495795&sr=8-1
Previously, Nick de Bois wrote Confessions of a Recovering MP about his time in Parliament and Boris Johnson said: "Nick de Bois is a superb campaigner and knows politics inside out. This book is a must-read!"
