Liz Truss's torrid day: Tory frontrunner's U-turn on civil service pay cuts after outcry

Foreign Secretary's Conservative leadership bid derailed by rows over pay and Scottish politics

Liz Truss performed a rapid U-turn after plans to cut public sector pay raised eyebrows. Getty

Liz Truss was forced to slam the brakes on a planned public sector pay cut on Tuesday after her proposals for a "war on Whitehall waste" caused an outcry in the Conservative leadership race.

It capped a difficult day for the Foreign Secretary after her swipe at Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a Tory leadership hustings led to a backlash north of the border.

A briefing war erupted as rival candidate Rishi Sunak's campaign team leapt on the pay row to say that nurses, police and the military would receive "less under Liz" — forcing Ms Truss to backtrack within 24 hours.

A statement said Ms Truss would abandon plans to reduce pay for civil servants working outside London after she was accused of betraying Tory promises to level Britain's north-south divide.

"Current levels of public sector pay will absolutely be maintained," it said. "Our hard-working frontline staff are the bedrock of society and there will be no proposal taken forward on regional pay boards for civil servants or public sector workers."

The U-turn was the first setback for the Truss campaign after a burst of momentum in which she opened up a healthy poll lead over Mr Sunak and won endorsements from a string of senior Tories, including former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt.

The two remaining candidates set out their economic plans at a hustings in Exeter on Monday as the party's roughly 200,000 members start to receive their ballot papers and decide who should succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Conservatives on the campaign trail - in pictures

Candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss at the Conservative Party leadership election hustings at Wembley Arena, London. This was the final hustings attended by Tory Party members who will vote for the new leader and next prime minister. EPA

Liz Truss addresses Conservative Party members at Wembley Arena. AP

Mr Sunak puts forward his case to be leader while speaking at Wembley Arena. Bloomberg

Mr Sunak visits his family's old business, Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton, while on the campaign trail. Reuters

Ms Truss speaks to staff at Condimentum Ltd at the Food Enterprise Park in Norwich. Getty Images

A Rishi Sunak supporter at a hustings event in Norfolk. PA

Mr Sunak greets people at a leadership hustings in Manchester. Bloomberg

Ms Truss poses for a selfie with a supporter as she arrives for the event in Manchester. Getty

Rishi Sunak looks through the sights of an anti-tank missile launcher, supplied to Ukraine, during a visit to the Thales Defence System plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. AP

Liz Truss at a Conservative Party leadership campaign event in Belfast. Getty

Liz Truss meets supporters before a hustings in Perth, Scotland. Getty

Rishi Sunak speaks during a campaign visit to Cluny Castle in Inverurie, Scotland. Getty

Police hold back protesters outside Perth Concert Hall, Scotland, where Conservative leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were speaking. PA

A mural showing the two leadership contestants appears on a wall in Belfast, Northern Ireland. AP

Rishi Sunak during a visit to St John's Wood Synagogue, north London. PA

Liz Truss at the Conservative Party leadership election hustings in Cheltenham. EPA

Rishi Sunak during a hustings event in Cheltenham. Reuters

Liz Truss speaks to scientists during a campaign visit to a life sciences laboratory at Alderley Park in Manchester. PA

Rishi Sunak during a campaign hustings in Darlington, England. Bloomberg

Liz Truss meets party members before she speaks at the Darlington campaign hustings. Getty

Rishi Sunak arrives for the Darlington hustings. Getty

Liz Truss plays pool during a visit to the Onside Future Youth Zone in London. Reuters

Rishi Sunak looks at a book with Teddy Openshaw, 4, as his father, Henry, looks on after a Conservative leadership campaign event in Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. Getty

Liz Truss plays table tennis with former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith during a visit to the Onside Future Youth Zone in London. Reuters

Liz Truss with supporters at a campaign event in Solihull, England. Reuters

Rishi Sunak attends a campaign event held by his party in Bexhill, England. Reuters

A protester is removed as Ms Truss speaks during the Conservative Party leadership hustings in Eastbourne. Bloomberg

Mr Sunak speaks at an event in Edinburgh. PA

Ms Truss leaves the hall in Exeter, south-west England, after her speech to a Conservative Party membership hustings. Getty

Mr Sunak speaks at the University of Exeter in south-west England. AP

A supporter of Ms Truss at a Conservative Party hustings in Exeter, south-west England. Getty

Ms Truss at a hustings event at the Pavilion conference centre at Elland Road in Leeds. PA

Mr Sunak in Salisbury watching a screening of the Uefa Women's Euro 2022 final between England and Germany at Wembley stadium. England won 2-1 in extra time. PA

Ms Truss before the Uefa Women's Euro 2022 final at Wembley stadium in London. AFP

Mr Sunak meets Tory members at Fontwell Park Racecourse. Reuters

Ms Truss at an event in Dereham, Norfolk. AFP

Mr Sunak in Ropley, near Winchester, Hampshire. PA

Ms Truss speaks as Conservative Member of Parliament Tom Tugendhat looks on at a Conservative Party leadership campaign event at Biggin Hill Airport. Getty

Ms Truss on the campaign trail in Woodford Green, on the outskirts of London. Reuters

Mr Sunak at a Conservative Party hustings event in Leeds. AFP

Ms Truss speaks at the hustings event in Leeds. AFP

Sunak and Truss-themed souvenirs at a stand during the Leeds hustings event. Reuters

Ms Truss, and her mother, Patricia, arrive for the hustings event. Getty

Ms Truss poses with supporters in Morley, England. Getty

Mr Sunak delivers a speech during a campaign event in Newmarket. AFP

Ms Truss and Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale and Darwen, during a visit to a broadband interchange company in Leeds. PA

Mr Sunak answers questions as he takes part in the hustings in Leeds. AFP

Ms Truss speaks at an event at a private house with members of the Conservative Party in Woodford Green. PA

Ms Truss and Mr Sunak pose for a picture before a BBC leadership debate at Victoria Hall in Hanley. Getty

Ms Truss addresses Mr Sunak during the televised debate. Getty

Mr Sunak, with daughters Krishna and Anushka, and wife Akshata Murthy, during a visit to Vaculug tyre specialists at Gonerby Hill Foot, Grantham. PA

Ms Truss speaks to people while campaigning in Marden. Getty

Ms Truss celebrates after being named, along with Mr Sunak, one of the final two candidates in the race to become the UK's next prime minister. PA

Mr Sunak outside his campaign office in central London. EPA

Ms Truss outside Downing Street in London. Reuters

Rishi Sunak meets Conservative Party members and activists, in Teesport, Redcar. Reuters

Conservative leadership candidates Mr Sunak, Ms Truss, Kemi Badenoch, presenter Julie Etchingham, Tom Tugendhat and Penny Mordaunt during 'Britain's Next Prime Minister: The ITV Debate' in London. EPA

Ms Badenoch arrives at Here East studios in Stratford, east London, before a live television debate. PA

Mr Sunak arrives at a London event to launch his campaign to be the next Conservative Party leader and UK prime minister. Reuters

Mr Tugendhat appears on the BBC One current affairs programme, 'Sunday Morning'. PA

Ms Badenoch, Ms Mordaunt, Mr Sunak, Ms Truss and Mr Tugendhat before the live television debate. PA

Ms Mordaunt arrives for the launch of her Conservative leadership campaign at the Cinnamon Club in Westminster. PA

Ms Truss speaks at the launch event for her campaign to become the next leader of the Tory Party and Britain's prime minister, in London. EPA

Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi, one of the candidates who has been knocked out of the race, giving a speech at the Churchill War Rooms. PA

Former leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt appearing on the BBC One current affairs programme, 'Sunday Morning'. PA

Sajid Javid attending the launch of his campaign to be Conservative Party leader and prime minister, at the Cinnamon Club in London. He has since been knocked out of the contest. PA

Rehman Chishti is interviewed after announcing his bid to become the next prime minister. Mr Chishti is no longer in the race. Getty

Mr Tugendhat speaking at the launch of his campaign. PA

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith arrive for the Truss campaign launch event. Getty

Former leadership candidate Attorney General Suella Braverman at the Churchill War Rooms in central London. PA

Supporters of Mr Sunak wait for his arrival ahead of the campaign launch. Bloomberg

Mr Tugendhat makes a speech at the launch of his campaign. PA

Mr Javid mops his brow while launching his campaign. Getty

Ms Truss leaves for work after her announcement that she would be running for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Getty

Ms Truss separately announced her plans to trim the civil service, often a bogeyman of Conservative MPs, by reducing annual leave and eliminating some of Whitehall's diversity officers in a push to tackle "left-wing groupthink".

She promised if elected to "run a leaner, more efficient, more focused Whitehall that prioritises the things that really matter to people and is laser-focused on frontline services".

Her proposals delighted Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a minister responsible for government efficiency, who said they would prevent money being wasted on the "woke indoctrination of civil servants".

But it was her suggestion that national pay scales should be replaced with regional ones, reflecting the cheaper cost of living outside London, that raised objections from Conservative and opposition MPs.

Critics said Ms Truss's promise of £8.8 billion ($10.7bn) in savings was wholly implausible unless she planned to go beyond civil servants and cut the pay of nurses, police officers and other public sector workers.

Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley region and a prominent face of the party in northern England, described the policy as "a ticking time bomb set by team Truss that will explode ahead of the next general election".

"There is simply no way you can do this without a massive pay cut for 5.5 million people, including nurses, police officers and our armed forces outside London," he said.

Rishi Sunak's campaign team seized on the pay controversy to accuse Ms Truss of proposing lower wages for nurses. Getty

Sam Freedman, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, said: "Either someone has accidentally added a zero to the end of a calculation or they mean the entire public sector workforce.

"If it's an error, it's extremely embarrassing. If she's proposing to cut doctor and teacher pay, she's lost her marbles."

Allies of Mr Sunak accused Ms Truss of stale thinking by reviving a regional pay idea previously considered under the Tony Blair and David Cameron governments but ultimately dropped.

The Sunak camp put out its own calculations, suggesting that 5.7 million public sector employees would have their pay cut by an average of £1,500 ($1,830) a year.

Even after the U-turn was announced, some Tories objected to Ms Truss's claim that its policies had been "wilfully misrepresented" when the £8.8bn figure came from its own press material.

The plans also ran into fierce resistance from the opposition and civil service unions, with Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner saying: "This out-of-touch government's commitment to levelling-up is dead."

Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “U-turning on a multibillion-pound policy five weeks before even taking office must be a new record."

Ms Truss's problems did not end in the North of England, as political rivals in Scotland took umbrage at her remark that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was "an attention seeker" who should be ignored.

Asked whether she would back a second independence vote advocated by Ms Sturgeon, Ms Truss channelled her political idol Margaret Thatcher by saying: "No, no, no."

Her comments won cheers in the all-Tory audience but led to criticism from Scottish nationalists who said she was belittling Scotland's position.

“Nicola Sturgeon has far more democratic legitimacy than Liz Truss is going to have if she becomes the prime minister," said Scottish Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that people north of the border, regardless of political opinion, would be “really concerned, and in many cases, insulted” by the remarks.

Nikita Bassi, an aide to Ms Sturgeon, described the Tory candidate's remarks as "ignorant, shameful and out of touch".

But Mr Rees-Mogg defended Ms Truss on Sky News and said of Ms Sturgeon: "I think she’s very often wrong, she’s always moaning and we need to focus on how the union benefits people."