Can British PM Liz Truss outlast a lettuce? The U.K. wonders whether her days are numbered after Brexit
Liz Truss, the British minister for the environment, has the makings of a hard-luck story. She’s been the government’s number one cheerleader, even as she has been an easy target for pro-Brexit opponents who mock her support for the Green Party’s environmental policies. She’s also been a darling of the press since coming onto the scene with her pledge to do away with the department’s “green-washing” and “green-bait” and instead turn it into Britain’s version of America’s Environmental Protection Agency.
Yet, as Truss has risen in the public esteem — or at least in the British Cabinet’s esteem — her fate has been looking up, at least on the British political landscape. A recent poll, published in The Financial Times, suggested that a majority of Britons were satisfied with her performance and even believed she could last another five years. And some critics have been grudgingly accepting of her role in the Conservative government that is set to win a general election next week.
What’s more, a number of prominent political pundits have been calling on Theresa May to consider a change on the prime minister’s team who might better suit her political needs. Her main antagonist in that context is the U.K.’s former finance minister, George Osborne.
But, as ever, it’s the story behind Truss’ rise on the British political spectrum that is the most interesting. She is not a new face. She’s a veteran politician, a veteran Cabinet minister, the daughter of former Conservative Party leader William Hague. She is not a flashy, young politician with a ready-made platform. What’s more, she has been dogged by allegations over the past six months that she has been using her government office for self-enrichment, including the purchase of a holiday home in the Channel Islands and the sale of a £300,000 car.
In fact, Truss is an unlikely politician. She wasn’t a member of the Conservative Party until 2011 — two years after its 2010 general election victory, but only a year before Britain voted to leave the European Union.
What’s more, in 2015 she was a