LONDON — Everyone knows that the first week in a new job can be difficult. So spare a thought for Liz Truss, the UK Prime Minister, who was invited earlier this week to form a government by Queen Elizabeth II. Already red on Tras’ calendar was Thursday, September 8, two days into her premiership and probably the most important day of her career. Her most senior aides knew it was the day that would set the tone for the rest of her premiership. And so it turned out — but not for the expected reasons. The new prime minister had just taken her seat in the Commons on Thursday after unveiling her long-awaited plan to tackle Britain’s soaring energy bills, arguably the biggest political issue of the year. Her announcement, a package worth an estimated £100 billion to freeze accounts at their current level, would be one of the biggest budget interventions by a British government in peacetime. She knew her premiership would be judged by how she landed with the public. But as she sat down, the world changed – as she was handed a note with an update on the Queen’s health. Queen Elizabeth had been placed by her doctors under medical observation. Her immediate family, including her son Charles, were already on their way to Balmoral. Four hours later, at 4.30pm, Truss was informed of the Queen’s death by Simon Case, her senior civil servant. The death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch marked a profound moment of change for the country – and a huge challenge for a prime minister two days into the job. “Moments of discontinuity – and the death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch is a prime example – call for the need for statesmanship from other critical political actors,” said Jeremy Black, Conservative Party historian and author of Britain Since 1945. “The demand for political skill is virtually unprecedented. For historians, this will be a turning point in Prime Minister Truss’s reputation. If he survives this crisis and shows the necessary leadership, he will come out of it with the praise of the future.” Truss entered Downing Street on Tuesday already under enormous time pressure. Inflation in the UK was running at over 10 per cent and energy bills were set to rise by 80 per cent in less than four weeks. Millions of households would not be able to pay. He had promised that “we will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver”. Queen Elizabeth greets newly elected Conservative Party leader Liz Truss on September 6 | Pool photo by Jane Barlow/Getty Images He intended to hit the ground running. In her first month in office she was set to hammer out her energy bill plan, meet with Joe Biden and other world leaders at the UN general assembly in New York and then cut taxes in a major budget event in mid-September . But the Queen’s death and the ensuing ten-day period of national mourning have put the brakes on her best-laid plans. Parliament is not expected to be in session after MPs finish assessing their dues on Saturday, meaning the new legislation cannot be passed in the coming days. A confused No. 10 insisted on Friday that the freeze on energy prices could continue on October 1 as planned, but through private contracts with energy suppliers rather than the expected emergency laws. Her trip to the United Nations is also now in doubt, with the Queen’s funeral and budget event already booked for the same week. Instead, Truss has a whole new challenge – rising to the occasion, as a rookie prime minister, at a moment in history. Where the tone of her premiership was to be set by freezing energy bills and announcing tax cuts, it now rests on how she responded to the Queen’s death. The last prime minister to find himself in even a very comparable situation was Tony Blair, who had been in office for just five months when Princess Diana died unexpectedly in a car crash in 1997. Blair’s memorable reference to Diana as “the people’s princess” in his speech that day stunned the nation and made history. His approval ratings soared, reaching 93 percent on the eve of the Labor party conference in September. He has won praise for his empathy at a time when the rest of the royal family has come under fire for its muted response to Diana’s death. Circumstances are very different now, but once again the Prime Minister’s duty is to capture the mood of the country. Peter Mandelson, one of the architects of Blair’s New Labour, said: “Any prime minister at the moment knows that she speaks for the nation not for herself and she must be visible but not intrusive. This is hard to get right, but putting public empathy above politics is key.” “The reason why Tony Blair’s words about Diana went around the world is not just because of the simple phrase ‘the people’s princess’, but because in the moment he understood and captured the public mood for her.” Observers say Truss now has a chance to define herself. She is still unknown to much of the British public. In an Ipsos poll this week, only half of respondents said they knew a fair amount or a lot about her. Some argue that by striking the right tone and keeping a steady hand in the palace, Truss can introduce herself to the nation in a deeply sympathetic way at a time when there is no appetite for party politics. Black said: “I don’t think it would be considered cynical by anyone to say that for a prime minister, this represents a huge opportunity and need. need on the part of the nation, opportunity on the part of the prime minister, to show leadership that helps bring people together.” Others argue that for now, politics, and Tras herself, will simply fade into the background as people mourn and celebrate the queen’s life. “He was going to use these next few days to create a persona,” said Stephen Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham. “When your party is 10 to 15 percent behind and you’re just taking over, you want to make a big impact.” “She would like to use this moment to portray herself in a very partisan way, to create dividing lines between herself and [Labour leader] Keir Starmer. “Now, while a nation mourns the passing of a long-time monarch, it can do nothing but remain in the background. If he tried to get into anything, he could recover very badly.”
