Liz Truss’s cabinet selection favours loyalty over substance

She needs to get things done and quickly and wants to avoid the delays that ministerial friction will bring, writes Salma Shah

Liz Truss may come to regret putting together a Government Omitting Any Talent, the clear new meaning of GOATs (Getty)

Every PM does it. Once elected, the sugar rush they get from victory makes them feel invincible. And they always make the same errors as a result: limiting the number of political advisers to curtail ambitious ministers, centralising processes to have micromanaging oversight over irrelevant aspects of government and, recently, rewarding loyalty and not promoting talent.

Liz Truss, our new leader, may come to regret putting together a Government Omitting Any Talent, the clear new meaning of GOATs. As permanent secretaries up and down Whitehall photograph themselves in awkward handshakes with their new charges they must all by secretly crying on the inside, wondering how they will help their country with such an inexperienced team.

Truss has opted to spurn unity – something the party so desperately needs to deliver in favour of rewarding supporters and loyalists. The urge to do this is natural; not only is it about having a top team you trust, but there is a logic in stamping one’s authority on government. She needs to get things done quickly and wants to avoid the delays that ministerial friction will bring.