When Liz Truss walked out of 10 Downing Street’s ironic black door for the final time on October 25 2022, ending her 45-day spell as Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, she could have been forgiven for thinking her political career was over.
Truss’s reign was defined by two events—the death of Queen Elizabeth II and a tax slashing mini-budget which spooked the financial markets—triggering a loss of confidence from her own Conservative MPs and the collapse of her administration.
But now Truss is back, with a radical new message for a British right which could be on the cusp of one of its biggest overhauls in centuries. Britain, Truss told Newsweek, needs to have its own “MAGA moment,” a reference to the Make America Great Again machine which powered Donald Trump to the White House not once but twice.
Broken Britain?
To say that British politics is tense would be an understatement. In July and August 2024 anti-migrant riots ripped across the country following the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Stockport, and false rumors an immigrant was responsible.
This summer authorities have desperately tried to keep a lid on nationwide protests outside hotels housing prospective asylum seekers, while on September 13 up to 150,000 people attended a ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London organized by Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Lennon, a fierce critic of migration and Islam.
For Truss this, and the polling lead established by Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party over the traditional Labour and Conservative duopoly, is evidence of an “uprising from the public.”
Britain’s MAGA Moment
Referring to her book published in 2024 Truss said: “I want Britain to have its MAGA moment, and in 10 Years to Save the West that is what I called for. I said we need the type of revolution that we’re seeing in the U.S., the MAGA, the independent media revolution, and now the Trump revolution…otherwise we are in very, very serious trouble.
“Look at the protests outside migrant hotels. Look at the Unite the Kingdom rally. Look at the support for Reform. All of those things point to a very, very unhappy public, but there’s a big difference between that and the actual actions that are required to chance Britain, and that is the issue we’ve got.”
The Deep State
Truss said her time in 10 Downing Street convinced her the “deep state,” a permanent left-leaning bureaucracy which conservatives believe has obstructed their governments on both sides of the Atlantic, was real.
She said: “People didn’t realize how bad it was. So it’s only when you get into Number 10 that you realize the leavers [of power] don’t work. It takes time for that realization to dawn, and I think we’re now in a position where [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer has realized that.”
Referring to Trump’s first four years in office Truss continued: “It took Trump one [term] for Trump to learn how you actually deal with the deep state, how you deal with the leftist forces, and he’s now learned that, and that’s where we’re seeing all the success of Trump.
Republicans in Name Only
Truss compared her opponents within the Conservative Party to RINOS, or Republicans in name only, a term some Trump supporters deploy against rivals within the GOP.
Referring to the UK she said that “too many conservatives weren’t really prepared to take the left on. They basically wanted to appease the left. So you go along with stuff like transgender ideology or environmental extremism, like the net-zero stuff, or even Keynesian economics, they didn’t really want to take the left on. So in that respect, they’re a bit like the Republicans in name only in the US.”
Turning to current Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who has lost ground to Farage’s more nativist Reform UK, Truss asked: “Is Kemi the Donald Trump figure of Britain? I don’t think she’s demonstrated that yet.
“And I don’t think she has demonstrated she understands what went wrong for the 14 years of Tory government, and what actually needs to change in Britain to make this country great again, but also to make it governable again. It’s just not governable at the moment, let alone great.”
Rise of Reform
Recent polling gives Reform UK a significant edge over both the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives. If replicated at a general election this could put Farage in Downing Street, breaking the Labour/Conservative duopoly for the first time since Labour replaced the Liberals as the main party of the left in the 1920s.
Farage has in the past praised Truss, initially describing her 2022 mini-budget as “the best Conservative budget since the 1980s” before it unraveled.
Truss declines to be drawn on whether she would serve in a Farage-led government, merely noting she doesn’t expect another general election to take place until it is legally required in 2029.
She said: “I think the issue is in Britain, and we’ve seen this through successive Conservative Prime Ministers and with Keir Starmer, is that whoever is in Number 10, they’re not really running the country at the moment. The unelected bureaucracy is incredibly powerful.
“So for me the most important thing is who and how is going to change this system? That’s what’s important and there’s no reason by the way that Nigel Farage couldn’t be that person, but he has to show that.”
Tommy Robinson
Unusually for a British Conservative, Truss offers a qualified defense of right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, following a controversy in 2024 when she remained silent on a podcast with Trump’s former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon who called him a “hero.”
The move caused Sajid Javid, then a prominent Conservative MP who is also a Muslim, to comment “Liz should really know better.”
Referring to Britain’s grooming gang scandal, which saw gangs of predominantly British-Pakistani men convicted of sexually abusing vulnerable mostly white girls, Truss said: “I think it is correct that Tommy Robinson drew attention to a problem and a heinous issue that had been brushed under the carpet by many, by many people.”
Asked whether she thought Robinson had been “unfairly demonized” she added: “Yes, I do.”
Charlie Kirk
Truss paid an emotional tribute to Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder and close Trump ally who was assassinated at Utah Valley University on September 10.
The pair met for the first time when Kirk visited the UK in May, addressing the prestigious Oxford and Cambridge Unions, with Truss commenting: “We were very keen to work with him on how we could help change Britain and Europe, learn the lessons of what he’d built in the U.S., reaching out to young people, talking about conservatism, talking about ideas, and what happened to him is just appalling.”
Describing Kirk as a “fantastic guy” she continued: “I think what has happened on the extreme left, basically using intimidation, even being prepared to assassinate somebody, shows how wrong they’ve gone, and how kind of anti-civilizational they are. So it was a huge shock. Somebody that, you know, I’d recently met, that we were all talking about just suddenly gone like that.”
The Future
Her brief spell in 10 Downing Street clearly radicalized Truss, raising the question of whether she could seek a return to electoral politics after losing her seat at the 2024 general election.
When asked Truss replies: “Well, I’m getting my ideas and thoughts out there, because the problem with being a government minister for so long is you’re very constrained in what you can say.
“You’re very constrained in what you can do and think about and who you can talk to. And I think the problems are so big in Britain that we do need a revolution, and I want to work to achieve that.”
Go Deeper: Q&A with Liz Truss
James Bickerton: Thank you very much for joining Newsweek. I guess the place to start is tragically, Charlie Kirk. I was wondering if he’s someone you know, and how you think the conservative movement should react to it?
Liz Truss: So I met Charlie Kirk when he was over in the U.K. earlier this year. He’s a fantastic guy. We were very keen to work with him on how we could help change Britain and Europe, learn the lessons of what he’d built in the U.S., reaching out to young people, talking about conservatism, talking about ideas. What happened to him is just appalling. I think what has happened on the extreme left, basically using intimidation, even being prepared to assassinate somebody, shows how wrong they’ve gone, and how kind of anti civilizational they are. So it was a huge shock. Somebody that, you know, I’d recently met, that we were all talking about just suddenly gone like that.
Bickerton: I mean, do you think it’s just a problem on the left? Because, of course, there have been some quite high profile figures…
Truss: I don’t, I don’t see, you know, if you look what happened to Trump, what happened to Charlie Kirk, we didn’t see that kind of threat to Biden or Kamala Harris. You know, this is deliberate intimidation and the celebration of his killing by people on the left has been absolutely shocking, including the president elect of the Oxford Union. You know this is something that people on the left are justifying…they’re saying that the end justifies the means. And I don’t think you see anything like that on the right.
Bickerton: Do you think the president of Oxford Union, or the incoming president, rather, should step down and not take up his post?
Truss: Yeah and I think he should be removed from Oxford University. And I publicly call for that. Yes. I don’t think he stands up to the ethos of Oxford University. I think he’s brought shame on the institution.
Bickerton:On Saturday, there was a very large protest in London—something between 110,000 and 150,000 people, according to the Metropolitan Police and the BBC—called ‘Unite the Kingdom’.
Truss: “Yeah, I was about to say, I mean the numbers are disputed aren’t they…You would have thought with AI that a definitive answer could be produced with aerial footage. But anyway, I’ll leave that to Newsweek.
Bickerton: A combination of that and the rise of Reform, of course, now leading the polls in the UK. Do you feel that Britain has its MAGA moment? Has MAGA arrived in the UK?
Truss: “Well, I want Britain to have its MAGA moment, and in 10 Years to Save the West that is what I called for. I said we need the type of revolution that we’re seeing in the US, the MAGA, the independent media revolution, and now the Trump revolution, that is exactly what we need in Britain and Europe.
“Otherwise, we are in very, very serious trouble, so I want to see that. I think that the uprising from the public is evident. Look at the protests outside migrant hotels. Look at the Unite the Kingdom rally. Look at the support for Reform.