Liz Truss has just failed an important leadership test

Truss had an opportunity to take on the emotional argument and present facts. Instead, she acquiesced to a view she must know isn’t true, writes Salma Shah

Playing to a gallery is a weakness of leadership (Reuters)

Liz Truss has just failed an important leadership test. At the latest hustings in sunny Darlington, she was asked who was to blame for Boris Johnson’s downfall? The question prompted shouts of “the media” from a Conservative audience. Her response was to cheerfully evade the question saying: “Who am I to disagree with this excellent audience?”

At the end of her questions the mic picked up her passing apology to seasoned lobby hack Tom Newton Dunn for having a go at the media, to which his correct response was it’s a “cheap shot”.

Not only is it cheap, it’s dangerous. The idea that Boris Johnson was not the architect of his own demise is a witless view. It’s disingenuous too, the entire reason she is in line for the top job is because Johnson was presiding over a dysfunctional government, she was there, occupying a ring-side seat.

Even so, it took a long time for Johnson’s most ardent newspaper supporters to finally concede that he wasn’t going to pull this back and without calling for it knew that the jig was up. No leader should be able to warp reality because it scores them points with aggrieved members of the Conservative Party.

She must have recognised her error hence the passing apology, why would you bite the hand that feeds you? Not only are vast tracts of the right-wing media on her side for being the Johnsonian candidate, she is also widely supported by sections of the media on issues like taxation – support she will need if she’s to win an election.

Contrary to popular belief, newspaper editors don’t, as a rule, just publish all the lovely things you say or the ideas you put forward – they tend to need convincing. I should know, as a former government adviser, that thinking about how to present certain policies and positioning to media outlets is a full-time job. Why? Because the media are the window into government and it’s not as cosy as some people like to think.

Yes, there are good working relationships that develop, but these relationships need constant management. It is a wide field full of contrasting opinions and a spectrum of different audiences. “The media” isn’t one homogeneous whole and it’s ridiculous to treat it that way.

In government, while under fire from journalists, I often lamented that it would be so much nicer to deal with a single frightened state broadcaster. How easy the spokesperson for Putin has it versus the poor spad having to face the twice-daily lobby briefing with all those annoying questions. But those questions keep the government honest.

Let’s hope that with a Liz leadership we don’t see a repeat of No 10 holding ministers hostage to prevent them being quizzed on Radio 4, as was the case in the early heady days of Johnson’s government, when scrutiny was a tedious bore and challenging views was a no-no.

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We cannot be in a position where we sleepwalk into soft censorship. Creating or even allowing a narrative that the media can’t be trusted is ridiculous. Of course, you can see the logic that got us to this point. Brexit-loving Tory supporters who saw Johnson, their hero, being diminished allowed them to transfer their frustrations onto the media and, of course, onto Rishi Sunak.

The media represents another pillar in the establishment that won’t, in their minds, see reason or understand what “the people” want. But that’s not what the media is here to do. Some of the Darlington crowd that I’ve spoken to espouse firmly anti-media views, hating the BBC for impartiality and the tabloids for their sensationalism, but they are reasonable people who are willing to listen.

Playing to a gallery is, in my view, a weakness of leadership. Truss had an opportunity to take on the emotional argument and present facts. Instead, she acquiesced to a view she must know isn’t true. Leaders are made through winning arguments and convincing people of one’s vision and purpose.

Only populists take advantage of your fears and prejudices. Truss maybe the continuity Johnson candidate but for pity’s sake she should avoid being the new British Trump.