After 12 long years of clambering the fraught British political ladder, Liz Truss had finally conquered the summit. There was also one person who could help keep her there, the arch-political operator of his generation who had made and broken prime ministers.
Author Harry Cole told The National how her curious relationship with Michael Gove came back to bite her.
They were friends but she did not fit easily into his ideological circle of neoconservatives, not that Ms Truss was ever particularly firmly planted in any ideology.
Their friendship had extended to Ms Truss as foreign secretary lending Mr Gove her grand grace-and-favour flat in London when he abruptly separated from his wife in 2021.
But on becoming prime minister in early September there was no place for him in her Cabinet and she knew having such a canny politician on the backbenches could prove problematic.
A week before the annual Conservative Party conference she met Mr Gove and made him an offer.
“She has a strange relationship with Gove and knows him very well,” said Mr Cole, the co-author of an intriguing biography on Ms Truss. “That he is very good at politics but also troublemaker so she tried to make peace with him by dangling a very large job out of the country as ambassador to Israel or China. It was basically ‘name your job Michael’.”
But the offer came just as the mini-budget calamity was unravelling. On the Sunday that conference began, Mr Gove found himself on the same BBC political show as the prime minister.
“He came out and machine-gunned the entire budget,” said Cole. “There was an offer and that was his answer.”
Cole’s book, co-authored with James Heale, received national attention when the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer used it as a quip during Prime Minister’s Questions.
“A book is being written about the prime minister’s time in office,” he said. “Apparently it’s going to be out by Christmas — is that the release date, or the title?”
The ensuing mirth at the Tory leader was prescient but Sir Keir was wrong on both counts. Ms Truss resigned 24 hours later and the book is titled: Out of the Blue: The inside story of the unexpected rise and rapid fall of Liz Truss.
Its sharp insights into Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister could well see it bulging from many Christmas stockings.
The idea for the book came to Cole, political editor for The Sun newspaper, when he realised in early July that a little known politician was going to lead the country.
“It was clear Liz was going to win the leadership but she was the most unknown inhabitant of that office so there was definitely a market for ‘who the hell is this person?’”
After a decade as Westminster lobby journalist, Cole had grown to know and like Ms Truss and her advisers, allowing him to detail her taxing trait of self-publicity.
“I don't think she's a bad person, I think she made some bad choices,” he told The National in a quiet corner of parliament. “There's two schools of thought on Liz with very little middle ground. She either brings out massive loyalty or …” He paused. “ … it’s not despair, as that is too hard a word, but head in hands and ‘what the…’”
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation, outside No 10 Downing Street, London. AP -
Liz Truss during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in London, addressing Parliament for the first time since abandoning her disastrous tax-slashing economic policies. AFP -
Liz Truss walks off stage after delivering her keynote speech at the Conservative Party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham in October. PA -
Liz Truss meets US President Joe Biden during the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. AP -
King Charles during his first audience in September with Ms Truss at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Getty Images -
Labour leader Keir Starmer and Liz Truss pay their respects after the service and procession for the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II into Westminster Hall, London, in September. PA -
Ms Truss is welcomed by staff in Downing Street as she enters the famous prime ministerial offices for the first time in September. Photo: Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street -
Queen Elizabeth II greets the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Ms Truss, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in September. The queen invited Ms Truss to become prime minister and form a new government. Getty Images -
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 meets supporters as she arrives to attend a Conservative leadership election hustings at the NEC, Birmingham, in August. AP -
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss take part in the BBC Leadership debate at Victoria Hall in Hanley in July. Getty Images -
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
He outlines Ms Truss's relentless “bulldozing mentality”, which is brutally unwrapped across the unauthorised biography’s highly readable pages.
In pursuit of power, the state-school-educated politician took every opportunity to publicise the good work she was doing for Britain and no better opportunity presented itself than her role as trade secretary, jetting around the globe to land post-Brexit trade deals.
In an extraordinary direct conversation with her US counterpart, she demonstrated her “total misunderstanding of social context and social norms” by going off “on a weird tangent about shortbread”, the book reveals.
“She was like a wrecking ball and didn’t really care about what was actually expected … she just got straight to the point.”
The Washington trip was not an immediate trade success but “Truss, unchained on the global stage, was only just warming up” the book warned.
Like a highly-paid Instagram influencer, the politician rigorously pursued the ideal tapestry for a picture.
In Sydney this meant ditching her entire political schedule to drive around the suburbs looking for “the hipster coffee capital of the world that was relying on British imports.” She was finally snapped with a very British sausage role in one hand and espresso in another.
But the results failed to meet her high editorial standards and the entourage headed to a car park near Sydney Harbour Bridge, where Ms Truss was pictured on a British-made Brompton bike with a Union Jack umbrella.
Editorial standards met, the picture went around the world accompanied by her Tweet of “Get on your bike and look for exports”.
When appointed foreign secretary by Boris Johnson in September 2021, it was another step on the quest for the top spot and by now she had developed a rock star’s taste for specific travel requirements.
British embassies were sent memos on what to expect:
— Double espressos served in a flat-white-sized takeaway cup.
— No pre-made or plastic-packed sandwiches
— No big-brand coffee.
— Bagels or sushi for lunch — absolutely no mayonnaise on anything, ever.
— A bottle of sauvignon blanc provided in the fridge of any overnight accommodation.
Her desire for the limelight was incessant. When she heard that Mr Johnson was meeting US President Donald Trump for preliminary trade talks in New York she ordered her staff to pull every string to get her in the room. They failed but their boss succeeded by collaring the then prime minister after a press conference, knowing he would accede to a direct request.
Ms Truss was “like the cat that got the cream” an aide recounted. “She was grinning ear to ear when she told us, ‘We’re in. I’ve sorted it!”
Exiting the meeting with the two world leaders, her first words were: “Get the pictures.”
Foreign travels meant that Ms Truss was stranded in Indonesia when Mr Johnson resigned in July only getting back to London two days later.
But she rapidly gained ground in the leadership contest, reaching the crucial second place behind Rishi Sunak and it was then that Cole, 36, knew the Tory membership would ultimately make her prime minister.
After Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Ms Truss waited until 23 September to launch the financial hand grenade of unfunded tax cuts that put her administration into an irrecoverable tailspin.
“I think she was in a hurry, she wanted to quickly turn it around,” said Cole “She thought ‘I'm at the peak of my powers, we are going to jump-start this thing’.”
As someone who was “transactional rather than ideological” Ms Truss had no tribe of Tories to rely on when things went wrong. “That's when the true sort of extent of her skills and all her failings became very clear and very quickly. She had tried to be too many things, too many people.”
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Liz Truss announces her resignation as UK Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street in London. 'The National' looks at her brief time in power. PA -
Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady speaks to the media in London following Liz Truss's announcement of her resignation. Reuters -
Liz Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary walk back inside 10 Downing Street following her resignation statement. AFP -
Liz Truss during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in London, addressing Parliament for the first time since abandoning her disastrous tax-slashing economic policies. AFP -
Liz Truss speaks to Grant Shapps at Downing Street as he is appointed Home Secretary, after the resignation of Suella Braverman. Photo: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street -
A mural by artist Ciaran Gallagher in Belfast is updated to reflect Liz Truss's current political troubles. PA -
Britain's new Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announcing tax and spending measures at the House of Commons in London, with Liz Truss sitting on the bench behind him. AFP -
Liz Truss gives a speech after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor of the exchequer. Reuters -
A protest by climate change group Extinction Rebellion in central London. Ms Truss has said the group is part of an 'anti-growth coalition' with trade unions and the main opposition Labour Party. AFP -
Ms Truss has come under increasing pressure during her short time as prime minister. AFP -
An Extinction Rebellion protest outside Downing Street on the day Mr Kwarteng was removed from the government. AP -
Ms Truss with members of the England women's football team and the European Championship trophy in Teddington, south-west London. Getty -
Ms Truss arrives for a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle in the Czech Republic. AP -
Ms Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary wave after her keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. AP -
Liz Truss gives a speech at the Conservative Party Conference. EPA -
Ms Truss meets with Mr Kwarteng, chancellor of the exchequer at the time. Photo: Andrew Parsons / CCHQ -
Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham. AFP -
Ms Truss meets US President Joe Biden for talks at the UN headquarters in New York. PA -
Ms Truss delivers a speech at the 77th session of the General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. AP -
The British prime minister holds a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York. Reuters -
Ms Truss meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN headquarters in New York. Reuters -
Ms Truss speaks to the media during her visit to the Empire State building in New York. AP -
Britain's new leader speaks during the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey, London. PA -
Ms Truss and her husband Hugh O'Leary observe a minute's silence at Number 10 Downing Street following the death of the queen. Reuters -
Britain's Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Truss leave after a service for the reception of Queen Elizabeth's coffin at Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. AFP -
Ms Truss joins the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle and selected MPs to take the oath and swear allegiance to King Charles III in the House of Commons chamber. PA -
King Charles during his first audience with Ms Truss at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Getty Images -
Ms Truss gives a reading during a service of prayer and reflection, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Getty Images -
The British prime minister makes a statement outside 10 Downing Street in London following the queen's death. Bloomberg -
Ms Truss speaking during her first weekly Prime Minister's Questions session at the House of Commons in London. AFP -
Front pages of a selection of British national newspapers, each leading with a story about Ms Truss becoming Britain's new prime minister. AFP -
People walk past an image in central London of Ms Truss on the side of a protest bus calling for a citizens' assembly. Reuters -
Ms Truss holds her first Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. Reuters -
Ms Truss speaks at Downing Street on the day she took over as prime minister from Boris Johnson. EPA -
Ms Truss poses with her husband Hugh O'Leary at Downing Street before entering as prime minister for the first time. EPA -
Ms Truss is welcomed by staff in Downing Street as she enters the famous prime ministerial offices for the first time. Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street -
New Health Secretary Therese Coffey and Number 10 staff shelter from a downpour as they wait for Ms Truss to arrive in Downing Street. PA -
Liz Truss makes a speech outside 10 Downing Street, London, after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to become prime minister and form a new government. PA -
Queen Elizabeth II greets the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Ms Truss, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The queen invited Ms Truss to become prime minister and form a new government. Getty Images
What now for Ms Truss? “I imagine it's probably going to hit her quite hard at some point,” he sympathised. “But she's the youngest ever living former PM and obviously very talented as you don't get to that top job without having a pretty skilled control of politics. I’d be fascinated to see where she ends up.”
The book’s publication was delayed for two more chapters to be written on her six week premiership, one with the ambiguous title of “Into the Red” — either referring to the massive budget deficit or Labour’s likely general election victory as a result.
But Ms Truss indefatigable nature might suggest this will not be the last chapter.
Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss by Harry Cole and James Heale is published by William Collins in hardback on 24 November. Currently available on Kindle.
