Experts explain where things went wrong for Liz Truss in live discussion

The Independent’s panel, hosted by our chief political commentator John Rentoul, examined exactly why Truss resigned just 45 days after becoming prime minister

Liz Truss making a speech outside No 10 (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

There is no disputing it has been quite a rollercoaster ride in UK politics in recent weeks.

Liz Truss’ time as prime minister was the shortest on record and it is fair to say her time in charge was not without drama.

With so much chaos developing around some of the decisions made by her and her administration, particuarly around the mini budget, here at The Independent we wanted to take to a closer look at exactly what went wrong.

To do that we gathered some UK politics and economics experts for our latest virtual panel dicussion. It was hosted by our chief political commentator John Rentoul and he was joined by our associate editor Sean O’Grady and economist Julian Jessop.

The discussion ranged from the history of Trussonomics through to whether Truss could have handled things differently, either during the leadership race or during her time as prime minister itself.

To watch the event in full view the recording below

Mr Jessop kicked things off with saying: “The headline is that Trussonomics was very much about a pro growth strategy and that was to be delievered by a series of tax cuts, that was an important part of it, but also some quite substantial supply side reforms.”

When asked about why Truss and former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng wouldn’t have realised the results of any errors they were making along the way, Mr O’Grady said: “Other people cleverer and wiser weren’t in the room and if they were in the room they weren’t being listened to. And they just got on with it, fingers in the ears.”

The panel also went onto discuss what is likely to happen next over the coming weeks and months with much speculation around the upcoming budget, as well as the chances of a general election being called.

To watch the event back in full please view the recording in the video above.

To watch other recordings in our virtual event series click here.