Liz Truss - What Happens Next?
On the 6th September 2022, Liz Truss was appointed by her Conservative party peers to lead and govern the country. But what are her policies? Why should we care who's in charge? How will she influence our day-to-day lives?
Firstly, who is Liz Truss? She has been in Parliament since 2010 and has been in the Cabinet since 2012. This means that, since then, she has been given responsibility for making important decisions regarding different aspects of the country. For example: As Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2019 meaning that her responsibility was for the pay of the public sector, pensions, spending reviews and much more.
Looking forward, what policies is the new P.M. going to implement in office? Well, one that she has already put in place is a cap on energy bills. This is where an average household in the UK will not pay any more than £2500 for their bills for the next two years. This is to aid the cost-of-living crisis, and with a long, expensive winter approaching - more policies like this are sorely needed. Truss has, however, stated that there would not be any kind of ‘windfall tax’ which would’ve helped families more with the cost-of-living crisis.
Another policy Truss promises to put in place is that expanding the Rwanda policy. This was a controversial policy that ex Home Secretary Priti Patel attempted to put in place where immigrants would be deported and held in Rwanda indefinitely. This angered a lot of people as they argued that Rwanda wasn’t safe, and often, sent people back to the very danger they were trying to escape. This policy arguably failed, as not one migrant was ever deported. Truss, however, promises to expand this move to more countries.
Regarding transport, Truss has said she will propose a new law which would make it considerably harder for strikes to be called. This would include tightening the standards that need to be met in order to call a strike and limiting how many strikes a union can have once approval is received from members. Truss also plans to bring a new high speed rail project to Northern England; however, she is being tight lipped on the exact details of this.
In regards to LGBTQ+ issues, on the surface, Truss’ views are on the whole positive. She always votes in support of same-sex marriage, she’s against conversion therapy and says she fully respects trans rights. Upon a deeper dive though, her views don’t seem to be as clear cut. Although she has stated many times, she is committed to ending conversion therapy. Truss has been saying this since 2018 when she was the Minister for Equality and it seems that no action has been taken to ban conversion therapy. This may change while she’s in leadership but as the old saying goes: ‘Actions speak louder than words.’
Truss has also always said that she supports trans rights but during her leadership campaign, she said multiple times that trans woman aren’t women, and that she is committed to protecting single sex spaces which can be worrying statements for trans people.
Liz Truss is a controversial figure in British politics, but only time will tell how much good she will do for the country and how much of her promised policies she will implement.