Liz Truss cites Iran diplomacy as qualification for UK PM job

Foreign secretary launches her bid with call to make Britain a high-growth economy

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is one of the candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister. Bloomberg

Boris Johnson and Liz Truss arrive for an extraordinary summit at Nato Headquarters in Brussels, in March this year. AFP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Liz Truss arrive for talks in Moscow in February. AP

Liz Truss in Red Square during a visit to Moscow in February. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss with Marise Payne, the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, at Government House in Sydney, Australia, in January. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss hosts Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic at Chevening House in January to discuss the Northern Ireland protocol. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss visits British troops in Estonia as they operate alongside other Nato troops in Tapa in November 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss walks through the old town in Tallinn, Estonia, in November 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Ms Truss at the Red Fort in New Delhi during a trip to India in October 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

The British foreign secretary on the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City, during a trip to Mexico in September 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss with Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state, in New York, September 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

Liz Truss on a morning jog over Brooklyn Bridge in New York in September 2021. Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street

When she was environmental 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

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss pointed on Thursday to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and another British hostage from prison in Iran as a demonstration of her leadership skills, as she launched her bid for prime minister.

Speaking to The Spectator magazine, she responded to a jibe about her “hand grenade” style with a point about her effectiveness in high office.

“What they say about the 'human hand grenade', which I think was first aired in The Spectator in a particularly appalling cartoon of me, I take it as a backhanded compliment in that I do get stuff done,” she said.

“Since I’ve been at the Foreign Office, we have secured the release of Nazanin [Zaghari-Ratcliffe] and Anoosheh [Ashoori] from Iran. We’ve refocused on foreign policy, on the network of liberty, and are taking a much tougher stand on both Russia and China.”

At a launch event on Thursday, she is expected to stress her economic agenda and her experience serving in the government since 2010.

“I am ready to be prime minister on day one,” she will say. “I can lead, make tough decisions and rise to the moment.

“My mission in politics is to give every child, every person, the best opportunity to succeed and for their success in life to depend solely on their hard work and talents, not their background or where they are from.”

The mantle of economic reformist is one she has sought to burnish with comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, the idol of the conservative right and prime minister from 1979-1990.

“I have a plan to make Britain a high-growth economy through bold supply-side reform.”

Allies of departing leader Boris Johnson, including Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, came out in support of Ms Truss moments after leaving a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Rees-Mogg went on to argue that the foreign secretary is “fiscally on the right side of the argument” and that she “opposed the endless tax rises of [rival Rishi Sunak], which I think have been economically damaging; I also was opposed to in cabinet”.

“I think that's important that you have somebody who's fiscally on the right side of the argument, who doesn't believe that higher taxation is the right answer to every question.”

He also said Ms Truss — who voted Remain in the 2016 European Union referendum — is more willing to take advantage of Brexit than Leave-voting Mr Sunak.

Mr Rees-Mogg claimed she is more “supportive about getting rid of the supremacy of EU law, and having a sunset on EU law” than Mr Sunak's Treasury.

Liz Truss

“I think you have to judge people by what they do currently,” he said.

Ms Truss said her 2016 vote was dictated by her instincts of personal loyalty and pointed to her role as foreign secretary in which she has stated her readiness to defy the EU by scrapping the Northern Ireland Protocol as well as her support for trade deals around the world post-Brexit.

“If I could vote now, I would vote to leave the European Union,” she told The Spectator.

“I was a reluctant Remainer. I was loyal to the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, but since the referendum, I’ve put my shoulder to the wheel in terms of delivering the opportunities of Brexit.

“As trade secretary, I negotiated a lot of trade deals, and we went much further than the European Union was ever prepared to in our deal with Australia.”