Mel Stride's ‘mea culpa’ for Liz Truss

The Shadow Chancellor’s speech this morning was a predictable one. Mel Stride is the kind of Conservative who spin doctors love to send out on the media round: smart, well-briefed and able to stick to the party line. He is also the kind of Conservative who was very much not a fan of Liz Truss, in both temperament and in substance. Tory Kremlinologists will recall that he was one of the most ardent internal critics of her mini-Budget of September 2022, as the-then Treasury Select Committee chair. So, it was no surprise then that the top line from his speech was an apologia for Truss.

‘Never again’, promised Stride, ‘will the Conservative party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises that we cannot afford.’ Contrasting the ‘mistakes’ of Truss’s tenure with the Tory record from 2010