Liz Truss is often compared to Margaret Thatcher, but with the Conservative leadership contest now in full swing, she seems to be taking some tips from another former prime minister: Labour’s Tony Blair.
Truss quoted Blair at a hustings this week as she “boasted” about the Conservatives winning his old seat of Sedgefield in 2019, said The Independent.
“As Blair himself would say, things can only get better,” she told an audience in Darlington. It’s not the first time Truss has been caught echoing the former PM. “I will campaign as a Conservative. I will govern as a Conservative,” she told supporters last month. This was compared to Blair’s 1997 election victory speech where he told voters: “We ran for office as New Labour. We will govern as New Labour.”
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While Truss appears to be inspired by Blair boosterisms, her rival Rishi Sunak frequently uses Blair-like “gesticulations”, body-language expert Judi James told Sky News. Another body-language expert told the Daily Express: “Rishi’s branding should have Tony Blair brandishing his copyright.”
But behind the scenes, Tim Shipman at The Sunday Times said he understands that Blair and Truss “speak fairly regularly” and “that the former prime minister has offered advice, bitterly earned, on Middle East affairs”. Cherie Blair has “been known to send encouraging notes to Truss as well”, said Shipman, although Truss told the journalist she was “not going to comment on any private correspondence”.
It’s a report Blair’s one-time right-hand man and spin doctor Alastair Campbell is not likely to enjoy hearing, having described the prospect of a Truss administration as “appalling” in a recent interview with The Guardian.
The Hound at Reaction.Life suggested that Truss does not need any help from previous leaders, with one recent poll giving her a “romping” 34-point lead over Sunak. “It is a triumph Tony Blair could only dream of.”
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