Read an exclusive extract from Liz Truss's memoirs in which she describes her final meeting with the Queen, her downfall after 49 days and life in No. 10 But before that, I had an appointment to keep at Balmoral.
Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss at Balmoral, Scotland, in September 2022, two days before the Queen's death That's when the machine kicked into action. My black mourning dress was fetched from my house in Greenwich, South London. My first weekend as Prime Minister was spent with my family, watching on television as the Queen's coffin left Balmoral to process to Edinburgh. Suddenly overwhelmed by the emotion of it all, I broke down into floods of tears on the sofa.
Liz Truss arrives at No. 10 Downing Street with her husband Hugh O'Leary, after her poignant meeting with the Queen Boris Johnson with his wife Carrie and Jack Russell cross Dilyn, left, and Larry, the Downing Street cat, who is Chief Mouser I felt cut off, reliant only on the small number of people with whom I spent my days. Since leaving, I've lost count of the number of former colleagues and friends who've said: 'Liz, if only you'd called me, I could have helped.'I'm someone who likes to shoot the breeze and bat ideas back and forth, but as Prime Minister there was precious little opportunity to do that, even if I could have found the time.
If it was a rollercoaster ride for me, it was even more discombobulating for our daughters, Frances and Liberty — aged 16 and 14 at the time — who'd moved to Downing Street just the weekend before starting a new school term. The first thing to strike me about working at No. 10 was just how small the operation was. We've created a system where the Prime Minister is treated like a President but has nothing like the kind of institutional support for the office of a president.
I found the lack of personal support for the Prime Minister pretty shocking, too. Despite now being one of the most photographed people in the country, I had to organise my own hair and make-up appointments. The only good reason to be in No. 10, and put up with all the downsides, was what I could get done while I was there. Had I been content to put off the big decisions, I might have secured a longer tenancy. But I was impatient. I had work to do.
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