The late Queen Elizabeth offered her newly appointed prime minister Liz Truss some pearls of wisdom just days before her death, a new memoir has revealed.
When the pair met just two days before the Queen passed away peacefully at Balmoral, the monarch advised her 15th prime minister to “pace yourself” – something Ms Truss wantonly ignored.
In the weeks that followed, Ms Truss unveiled a mini-budget consisting of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts that triggered a domestic financial crisis and the end of her tenure as head of government.
The pound spiralled, while mortgage rates and borrowing costs soared. Tory MPs swiftly turned on her and she was forced to resign after just 49 days in office, making her the shortest-serving prime minister.
In hindsight, Ms Truss says “maybe I should have listened” to the Queen.
She remains a Tory MP for South West Norfolk and champion of the hard-right however, and in her new book Ten Years To Save The West, she staunchly defends her views.
Ms Truss also gives a fresh take on her historic encounter with Britain’s longest serving monarch.
The late Queen welcomed the politician to Balmoral in Scotland on September 6, 2022, in what would be her final engagement before her death two days later.
Ms Truss says the 96-year-old monarch “seemed to have grown frailer” since she had last been in the public eye.
“We spent around 20 minutes discussing politics,” Ms Truss writes. “She was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty.
“Towards the end of our discussion, she warned me that being prime minister is incredibly aging. She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.’ Maybe I should have listened.”
Previously, the former Tory leader said the Queen was “absolutely determined to do her duty” when the monarch confirmed her as the new British prime minister.
She said: “She was absolutely on top of what was happening and very, very, keen to reassure me we would be meeting again soon.
“I was obviously in the first few days of being prime minister and thinking about the many, many different things. But the assumption, absolutely, was this would be the first of many, many meetings.
“She was very determined to do her duty, and right to the end we had a very, very good meeting, and she was upbeat.”
