Truss rules out comeback as she admits error on tax rate

Liz Truss has ruled out any chance of reaching No 10 again amid speculation about a potential comeback, as she admitted her botched plan to ditch the top rate of tax for the richest earners was a "bridge too far".

- ADAM FORREST

In her first interview since leaving Downing Street, the former prime minister largely blamed Whitehall officials for the economic turmoil sparked by her disastrous mini-Budget saying no one told her about the risk to pension funds. Ms Truss also took a swipe at Joe Biden for criticising her agenda, and revealed that her premiership was doomed from the moment she fired her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Asked by The Spectator if she wanted to be prime minister again, Ms Truss said: "No", before adding that she "will be supporting" Rishi Sunak from the backbenches. "I definitely want to be part of promoting a pro-growth agenda," she said. "I definitely want to carry on as an MP. I think we need to start building more of a strong intellectual base. But I'm not desperate to get back into No 10, no."

In the first hint of contrition, Ms Truss expressed remorse about trying to abolish the 45p top rate of tax for the wealthy - a move she abandoned after an outcry from her own MPs - saying she may have been "trying to fatten the pig on market day". Asked if she regretted trying to scrap the top tax rate, she said: "We could all think different things with hindsight, and perhaps it was a bridge too far - but I'm not convinced that it was a magic bullet, that everything would have been fine if we hadn't done that."