Emboldened Truss takes major risk on day one

LIZ Truss became on Tuesday (Sep 6) the first British prime minister for 140 years to be appointed in Scotland by the Queen, but this is not the only historic echo for her forthcoming period of office.

In July 1962, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed 7 members of his Cabinet, one-third of the total. This became known as the “night of the long knives” and is akin to what Truss did on Tuesday with a major cull of supporters of former finance minister Rishi Sunak.

Despite Truss winning the Conservative leadership contest on Sep 5 with a narrower margin of victory than expected, she has shown little appetite to appoint ministers who opposed her, and Sunak himself has not been offered a role in a significant break with precedent. She, therefore, risks making exactly the same big mistake as Boris Johnson in 2019 by favouring too many close allies, and not reaching out to all key wings of the Conservative Party.