The top Labour Cabinet minister Wes Streeting compared the disaster ex-Tory leader Liz Truss to an ‘arsonist complaining the fire brigade isn’t doing a good enough job’
Wes Streeting has hit back at Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister Liz Truss’s latest economic intervention – claiming she has “no shame”.
The top Labour Cabinet minister compared the disaster ex-Tory leader to an “arsonist complaining the fire brigade isn’t doing a good enough job.” It comes after Ms Truss, who was turfed out of office after just 49 days after her mini-Budget sparked turmoil in the financial markets, again appeared unrepentant.
In an interview with Sky News, she defended her record in office, blamed the Bank of England, and claimed she wasn’t “captain of the ship” in Downing Street. Ms Truss also said Britain was heading for a “calamity” under the Labour government with Chancellor Rachel Reeves pushing “economic orthodoxy”. She said: “That has ruined this country, and we are heading for a calamity because of that.”
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But responding to her comments, the Health Secretary Mr Streeting said: “The last person that Rachel Reeves will be taking advice from on effective management of the economy and public finances is Liz Truss. To be honest how she’s got the nerve to show her face after what she did to the country -remarkable lack of self-awareness to be honest”.
He added: “We’ll take no lectures from Liz Truss. In fact, we quite often resent former Conservatives popping up, complaining about the choices we’re making, as we clean up the mess they left behind.
“A bit like the arsonist complaining the fire brigade isn’t doing a good enough job.”
Mr Streeting went on: “If i were Liz Truss I would be keeping my head down and certainly not offering myself up as a commentator on the economy unless it’s to pop up and use the word sorry regularly and repeatedly. But she doesn’t. She’s got no shame, no humility, no remorse.”
Ms Truss also told Sky News the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch are “unlikely to win the election” and also declined to rule out a return to frontline politics.
Asked whether she thought Reform’s Nigel Farage was “more likely to deliver” than Ms Badenoch, Ms Truss said: “I think the way the Conservative Party is going, they’re unlikely to win the election.” She added: “They’re not prepared to acknowledge what happened over the past 14 years and the failings to really take on what I would describe as the leftist establishment. So I don’t think she’s going to be prime minister at this stage.”
But asked whether she wanted to join Reform UK, she did not give a direct answer, saying: “What I am absolutely concerned to make happen is that the British state itself needs to change.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in No 10, if the same people are still in charge of the Treasury, the Office of Budget Responsibility, the Bank of England, the Supreme Court, it doesn’t matter.”
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