The Labour Party has a big job on its hands now that Liz Truss is to be PM as the former foreign secretary will be embarking on quite a different style of conservatism to her predecessor.
Boris Johnson might have been a greased piglet at times – as incalculable as he was prone to dithering – but ultimately his reliance on bluster, chicanery and a loose relationship with the truth meant that Labour was shooting fish in a barrel.
The new PM is a wholly different kettle of fish.
Truss, unlike Johnson, is seemingly driven less by a desire to be world-king/queen, and more by her ideological beliefs honed by years as a Lib Dem… sorry, Conservative.
The new PM has made abundantly clear her ideals of a deregulated, low tax small state, and was described by one Labour source as “the most ideological prime minister there has probably been in my lifetime.”
Keir Starmer and his Labour colleagues – who reportedly have a loathing respect for Truss’s ability as a politician, and the similar upbringing she experienced to the Labour leader – will have no choice but to change tack in order to grapple with an opponent who knows what she wants.
Even so, Truss is far from unassailable. Much has been made of Truss’ penchant for avoiding interviews – such as with Andrew Neil and Nick Robinson, who both interviewed her rival, Rishi Sunak.
Those opposed to Truss have also criticised the new PM for glossing over details, as well as refusing to admit mistakes – traits that might prove tricky to hide when facing the scrutiny that comes with the keys to Number 10.
Starmer, for his part, has already come racing out of the blocks, saying that Truss is “not on the side of working people.”
“She needs to show that she actually understands, and can meet the challenges that are there after 12 years of failure of this Tory Government,” the Labour leader said.
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