Liz Truss should be barred from standing as a Conservative election candidate to show “that we get it”, a former minister has said.
Sir Conor Burns, who served consecutively as a Northern Ireland and international trade minister from 2021-2022, said that his party must “draw a line under the ClusterTruss”.
Truss’ premiership in autumn 2022 lasted just 49 days. Her “mini-budget” included a series of unfunded tax cuts, triggering significant market turmoil.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Burns described Truss’ infamously tumultuous time in office as “a period of shame in the [Conservative] Party’s noble history.”
He accused her of showing a “lack of any self awareness, zero contrition and deranged conspiracy theories”, which he claimed has “made it hard for the party to rebuild.”
Burns added: “The party should… make it clear that Truss will never again be an endorsed Conservative candidate for elected office.”
Burns served as the Conservative MP Bournemouth West from 2010-2024, losing his seat alongside Truss at the last general election.
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His comments came after Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, vowed the Conservative Party would “never again” repeat the mistakes Truss made in her mini-budget of September 2022.
“For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected”, Stride said at an event in London on Thursday morning.
“The credibility of the UK’s economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills, and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for. As a Conservative, of course I want taxes to be as low as possible. But that must be achieved responsibly through fiscal discipline.”
Truss hit back at the shadow chancellor’s comments, releasing a statement that called Stride “one of the Conservative MPs who kowtowed to the failed Treasury orthodoxy and was set on undermining my plan for growth from the moment I beat his chosen candidate for the party leadership [Rishi Sunak]”.
She added: “Until Mel Stride admits the economic failings of the last Conservative government, the British public will not trust the party with the reins of power again.”
Since leaving office, Truss has sought to defend her economic agenda, often blaming a left-wing “economic establishment” for her downfall.
In his post on Thursday afternoon, Burns said: “It is long overdue for the Conservative Party to draw a line under the ClusterTruss. It was a period of shame in the party’s noble history. With a lack of any self awareness, zero contrition and deranged conspiracy theories she has made it hard for the party to rebuild.
“So depleted is the party that some of her most inept advocates now linger on the front bench. The party should go one step further than today’s comments and make it clear that Truss will never again be an endorsed Conservative candidate for elected office.
“In that act the country may see, at last, that we get it.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
Something I’ve thought for a while: barring Liz Truss from standing as a Tory candidate in future elections would make for a pretty strong ‘Clause IV moment’
