Cometh the hour, cometh the lady

Few incoming British prime ministers have faced more daunting challenges or less propitious circumstances than those confronting Liz Truss as she takes the reins at Downing Street. After a protracted leadership contest, the Conservative party is divided and weakened. Britain is adrift amid its gravest economic crisis in decades, war in Europe and political pressures from soaring energy bills, inflation in double figures, rising interest rates, train strikes and fears about the National Health Service’s ability to cope.

The need for strong leadership in Britain is as great as it was in 1979 when, amid another crisis, Margaret Thatcher ousted Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan after the “Winter of Discontent”. Ms Truss will need similar strength, not only in dealing with Britain’s problems but also in helping provide the leadership the Western alliance needs to deal with threats from Russian and Chinese aggression. As the driver, at the London end, of the Australia-UK free trade agreement, Ms Truss is a good friend to this nation. When she visited in January she articulated her long-term vision for Britain’s place in the world. The close bond between Britain and Australia, she said, was stronger and more important than ever in view of strategic threats.

“Russia and China are working together more and more as they strive to set the standards in technologies like artificial intelligence, assert their dominance over the western Pacific through joint military exercises and in space,” she told the Lowy Institute. “As freedom-loving democracies we need to rise up to face down these threats. As well as NATO, we are working with partners like Australia, India, Japan, Indonesia and Israel to build a global network of liberty. Aggressors are reneging on their commitments and obligations. They’re destabilising the rules-based international order and chipping away at the values that underpin it. But they have nothing to offer in its place.” The free world, in contrast, believed in individual liberty as the greatest transformative force on Earth, she said. “When people have agency over their own lives, when they have freedom and opportunity, they achieve incredible things.”

Decades after her student days when, with her left-wing parents, she took to the streets to demonstrate against Thatcher’s pro-nuclear policies, Ms Truss looks to the former prime minister as a hero and role model. Thatcher’s philosophy, principles and convictions were well formed by the time she became opposition leader in 1974; more so when she was elected prime minister in 1979. She was also pragmatic.

Ms Truss’s philosophy is less clear. Her ideas on key issues such as Brexit have changed through the years. As a teenager supporting the Lib Dems she was anti-monarchy; now she sees the royal family as essential to Britain. Ms Truss’s decisions in governing will be shaped by the ambitious promises (tax cuts, freezing energy prices, higher growth, ending the ban on selective free grammar schools) made to defeat former chancellor Rishi Sunak for the leadership. When she settles on her course, she will need to be pragmatic and steadfast to see it through. Critics such as the Scottish National Party are trying to tear down her plan to boost energy security by giving a green light to fracking to release shale gas in the north of England and pursuing more nuclear power. The latter would be long-term, which is all the more reason to get on with it. Ms Truss’s instincts on the issue are correct. With Britain facing a winter of discontent, energy is an issue on which she should emulate the Thatcher handbook and show “the lady’s not for turning”.

Boris Johnson’s three years as prime minister included conspicuous successes. It is unlikely any other British leader could have broken the Brexit impasse. After a faltering early response to Covid-19, his leadership over vaccines gave Britain a head start that enabled it to exit restrictions ahead of the rest of Europe. His leadership in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine steeled much of the world’s response to Vladimir Putin’s onslaught. But after the scandals and shambolic administration that brought him undone, Ms Truss must restore order in Downing Street and party unity. With a general election two years away, the Labour opposition under Keir Starmer is 15 points ahead in polls and looking electable following the removal of the batty, far-left ideologue Jeremy Corbyn. Australia’s former high commissioner in London, George Brandis, describes Ms Truss as a “Thatcherite neo-liberal”. That perception, and the strength she showed as foreign secretary, should help her as the Queen’s 15th prime minister in 70 years.