The UK's new prime minister, Liz Truss, has been in power only a day, but she is already running out of time. So grave are the problems Britain faces. Inflation has hit double digits and energy bills are set to rise by 80 per cent next month. More crises are brewing at home and abroad.
She will need to muster all the experience she has to overcome these difficulties, particularly from her time as foreign secretary, a position she gave up on Monday. James Callaghan was the last prime minister to go straight from the Foreign Office to 10 Downing Street, almost 50 years ago. There are other interesting parallels between the two. Callaghan took power at the height of Britain's dysfunctional "sick man of Europe" phase between the late 1960s and 70s, a label brought about by the poor state of its economy.
Margaret Thatcher followed Callaghan as prime minister. She is a Conservative Party hero, credited by many with turning the fortunes of the country around and defending it abroad. In August, Ms Truss said of the Thatcher era that “Britain was one of the first countries to really reform regulation and create privatised utilities – we did great things in the 1980s”.
Ms Truss will be hoping she can shape the 2020s in a similar manner, and she will undoubtedly be thinking of the Iron Lady in these first, critical days of her premiership. If she can manage her incredibly difficult portfolio successfully she will get the same historic recognition.
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New Conservative Party leader and Britain's Prime Minister-elect Liz Truss delivers a speech after being announced the winner of the Tory Party leadership contest in central London on September 5, 2022. Ms Truss is the UK's third female prime minister following Theresa May and Margaret Thatcher. AFP -
Liz Truss during a hustings event in Darlington in August 2022. Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak are awaiting the results of a poll of Conservative Party members deciding which of them has been selected as the new party leader, and next prime minister. PA -
Liz Truss playing pool during a visit to the Onside Future Youth Zone in London in August 2022. PA -
Boris Johnson and Ms Truss arriving for an extraordinary summit at Nato headquarters in Brussels, in March 2022. AFP -
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ms Truss arrive for talks in Moscow in February 2022. AP -
Ms Truss in Red Square during a visit to Moscow in February 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss meeting European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic (not seen) for talks in central London on the Northern Ireland Protocol on 11th February 2022. PA -
Ms Truss with Marise Payne, the Australian minister of foreign affairs, at Government House in Sydney, Australia, in January 2022. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss hosts Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic at Chevening House in January 2022 to discuss the Northern Ireland protocol. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss visits British troops in Estonia as they operate alongside other Nato troops in Tapa in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Liz Truss walks through the old town in Tallinn, Estonia, in November 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss greeting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, in November 2021. PA -
Ms Truss at the Red Fort in New Delhi during a trip to India in October 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
The British foreign secretary on the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City, during a trip to Mexico in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Queen Elizabeth II greeting Ms Truss at a reception for international business and investment leaders at Windsor Castle in October 2021. PA -
Liz Truss with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, in New York, in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Ms Truss on a morning jog over Brooklyn Bridge in New York in September 2021. Photo: No. 10, Downing Street -
Former Chancellor Philip Hammond, centre, holding his red ministerial box outside 11, Downing Street, flanked by Treasury colleagues Ms Truss and Mel Stride in October 2018. PA -
Ms Truss, then secretary of state for justice, being escorted around HMP Brixton by prison governor David Bamford in November 2016. PA -
Ms Truss as she became the first woman ever to hold the role of Lord Chancellor, arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice before being installed in July 2016. PA -
In April 2016, the former environment secretary Liz Truss listening to former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne (not seen) during his speech at the National Composites Centre in Bristol. PA -
When she was environment minister, Ms Truss visited the bridge over the River Wharfe in Tadcaster, which collapsed after heavy flooding in December 2015. Getty Images -
Addressing the Conservative party conference in Birmingham in 2014 when she was secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. Getty Images -
Mr Truss on the Sawnnington Farm to Fork stand at the Norfolk Food Festival at the Houses Of Parliament in October 2011. PA -
Conservative Parliamentary candidate for South-West Norfolk Elizabeth Truss, while canvassing in the village of West Walton during the 2010 General Election campaign. PA -
The former Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, centre, speaking at the launch Reform's Lawful Society report on the nature of crime and the incentives in the criminal justice system while Ms Truss looks on, in September 2008. PA -
Former Conservative Leader William Hague meeting conservative candidate for Calder valley Ms Truss, during the General Election Campaign for 2005. PA
Doing so, however, will require looking abroad at a time when it might be compelling to focus on home. The UK's domestic problems are, after all, in large part the product of a malfunctioning world.
Fortunately, Ms Truss has already demonstrated some capability when it comes to engaging with the world. She has been an advocate for a global Britain in the post-Brexit era and during her time as international trade minister important approaches were made for new trade deals.
Unfortunately, today's global agenda is far less about realising an optimistic future and far more about managing worsening crises. The Ukraine conflict requires negotiations between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible, the green agenda must stay on track and tensions between the West and China should also be reduced.
The Middle East matters to Ms Truss's quest, too. Its stability is crucial for global stability, from energy security to the freedom of movement in its seas.
Ms Truss's predecessor, Boris Johnson, had many supporters abroad, not least in Ukraine where a street in the capital is now named after him. It was a different picture at home. His final days in office were riddled with accusations of mismanagement and misconduct.
The shape in which he found himself handing over power to Ms Truss should serve as a lesson in how to be a leader in unstable times. It is possible to be liked abroad, but it means little if your vision and conduct is poorly received at home. Ms Truss must seize the chance she now has to pursue a foreign policy that builds bridges and promotes peace abroad, and, while doing that, help ease Britain's domestic troubles.
