How the coming days will set the tone of Liz Truss’s time at No 10
As Liz Truss processed out of Westminster Hall behind King Charles, over the brass plaques marking the trials of Guy Fawkes and Charles I, and the spot where the Queen Mother lay in state, she looked like she was personally bearing the weight of history on her shoulders.
Her face grave and drawn, the new prime minister may have been reflecting on the new King’s words when he addressed MPs and peers assembled in the 900-year-old building: “Parliament is the living and breathing instrument of our democracy.”
For 10 days at least, it is not. Parliament is suspended. Politics has, understandably, faded into the background. The new government’s planned policy blitz has been shelved. Whitehall will be conducting essential business only. Truss will be taking a back seat to the royal family as they lead the national mourning.
Yet for Truss, how she handles this period will set the tone for her entire premiership. If she gets it right, rising to the occasion and judging the mood of the country correctly, it will bolster her in the hard months ahead. If she fails, her task over the winter as the economic emergency bites, will become harder still.
This week, Truss is expected to remember that she is speaking for the British people, rather than for herself, and while the public wants her to be visible, she also has to show that she is comfortable playing a bit part in somebody else’s story.
While the cogs of the civil service kicked in the moment news of the Queen’s death arrived, with the implementation of the long-planned and oft practiced Operation London Bridge, not every part of Truss’s response so far has gone smoothly.
Her speech outside No 10 was criticised by some Tory MPs for being underwhelming and lacking depth and empathy –
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