Try GOLD - Free
The great mystery of how Liz Truss was elected still remains
The Observer
|May 25, 2025
We lost. You know those defiant statements on the courtroom steps when the underdog emerges and announces that their victory is a win for the public too? This isn't one of them.
For the past three years Tortoise, now the owners of The Observer, have been trying to find out how Liz Truss was elected to be prime minister - who were the Conservative party members who voted for her, how that election was run and what was done to ensure it was safe.
The Conservatives had given us the brush-off. They said they were a private members’ club, so it was none of our business. Anyway, they added, the prime minister was not chosen by the party, but the Queen.
This story is from the May 25, 2025 edition of The Observer.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Observer
The Observer
A buzz, silence, a blue light… then utter devastation. The lethal Russian drones wreaking havoc in Ukraine
Citizens fall asleep every night to the constant hum of killing machines that turn buildings to dust and snuff out lives.
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Musical chairs: Keir Starmer ushers in a new cabinet of trusted 'fixers and doers'
The prime minister's reshuffle signals a clear determination to tackle issues such as immigration and welfare by putting the ministers he considers most effective in charge, writes Rachel Sylvester
4 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
She listened to Grenfell's bereaved and then acted. Rayner had pure class — our class Kimia Zabihyan
Unlike her predecessors as housing minister, she confronted the issue of dismantling the tower and demolition has now started
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Back to petroleum
In 2020, BP told the world that it cared about climate change. Today, it is doubling down on oil and gas. This is the story of how financial markets gave up on net zero and how an aggressive US hedge fund helped pressure Britain's best-known energy company to abandon its green ambitions
11 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Vespillo burying beetle
Some say that powerful scents bring back the past. Not me. In that single moment of gorgeous olfaction I smelled a glorious future. All the hope in the world was revealed by the scent that wafted towards me on the gentlest breeze. There was a corpse out there, a good mile off, and I knew at once that it would bring me all the joy and happiness a beetle is capable of.
2 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
The six warning signs as crypto is welcomed into the US mainstream
In a single week, the Trump family have increased their on-paper wealth by more than $6.5bn after Eric and Don Jr's crypto company American Bitcoin debuted on the Nasdaq and the family's stablecoin venture, World Liberty Financial, started selling tokens. As their enrichment continues, Richard Lambert examines the history of market hysteria and why crypto's rise under this president has all the alarm bells ringing
10 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Zack Polanski
Last week, Zack Polanski, a 42-year-old gay Jewish vegan, became leader of the Green party with a promise to turn it into a leftwing version of Reform UK.
6 mins
September 07, 2025

The Observer
In a show of power, China's strange bedfellows signal a new world order
After two striking images in China, Rana Mitter asks whether we've just witnessed the start of the Asian century
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
CEOs face same censure as stars over crimes and misdemeanours
Not so long ago, America’s puritanical attitude to CEO naughtiness was regarded on this side of the Atlantic as an oddity.
1 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Keironomics marks start of Whitehall reshaping of state
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was the still point of the turning world in cabinet but, around her, economic and social policy is shifting.
2 mins
September 07, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size