Liz Truss’s epic blandness

Liz Truss faced her first proper grilling at PMQs. Her debut, last month, was a softball affair but today Keir Starmer went in with both fists swinging.

He asked her to endorse Jacob Rees-Mogg's view that ‘turmoil in the markets has nothing to do with the Budget’.

‘What we have done,’ said Liz, pleasantly, ‘we have taken decisive action to make sure that people are not facing energy bills of £6,000 for two years.’

Sir Keir, already hopping mad, blasted her for ignoring his specific point.

‘Avoiding the question, ducking responsibility, lost in denial,’ he said viciously. He mentioned a young couple from Wolverhampton, Zac and Rebecca, who last week were offered a mortgage only to learn that it had been withdrawn. Liz was to blame.

‘They’re back to square one,’ he fumed. ‘They’re devastated. They’re sick to the back teeth of excuses and blame shifting.’ The fit of rage shook him visibly.

‘Zac and Rebecca are completely furious – with HER!’

Not a great moment. He lost control and seemed a bit unstable. Dangerous even. Not a man you’d put in charge of the ropes at a bungee jump. Liz repeated her dead-safe reply.

‘When I came into office people were facing energy bills of up to £6,000 a year.’

That was her tactic throughout. Cutting energy bills. She had nothing else to offer. When Sir Keir begged her to reverse the ‘kamikaze Budget,’ she said the same thing but with different words.

‘What our Budget has delivered is security for families for the next two winters.’

Ian Blackford of the SNP told her to stop ‘scapegoating’ the Governor of the Bank of England. He received the same automated response.

‘Families in Scotland are not facing gargantuan energy bills,’ she said with epic blandness.

Was anyone listening? Tory MPs began to bait the Speaker who lost patience with them.

‘I want to hear the Prime Minister and I’m sorry if her own party doesn’t.’

And yet Liz is tougher than she looks. Beneath the mumsy twinkle, the kindly half-smile, the blonde hairstyle tilted to one side, there lies a certain steel. Or it is it just obliviousness? She seems semi-detached from her own feelings. Which can be helpful to her and frustrating to her opponents. It’s hard to wound a foe who registers no pain.

She barely noticed when she made two errors that had the chamber howling at her in derision. She wanted to highlight the opposition’s inconsistencies and she said, ‘I am genuinely unclear about Labour …’ But unwisely she paused before the words ‘about Labour’ and the phrase came out as, ‘I am genuinely unclear’. This sounded like a complete statement. A personal motto. An over-arching philosophy. Everyone roared with laughter. Did she intend to be ‘genuinely unclear’ for the whole of her premiership? It was a huge gift to the Labour party. Their publicists, even now, are mocking up a poster of Liz with her new catchphrase in a speech-bubble over her head.

She did it again at the end. A plea for a general election was lodged by Labour’s Matt Western who said that Liz’s honeymoon was bound to lead to divorce.

‘I think the last thing we need is a general election,’ replied Liz. There were sharp intakes of breath. Did she actually say that? A Prime Minister without a mandate confesses that she has no intention of seeking one. This was worse than a blunder. It was surrender. But guess what. Liz didn’t care. Speaker Hoyle stood up, barely containing his giggles, and declared the session closed.

‘More!’ shouted Labour members, ‘More!’

There will be more. But perhaps not as much as Liz hopes.