Liz Truss has revealed that when she learned that the Queen had died just two days after being sworn in as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), she thought, “Why me, why now?”
In his new book Ten Years to Save the West, Truss admitted that he was “shocked” when he received the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022.
Truss, referring to their historic meeting at Balmoral in Scotland just two days before the monarch died, said that the 96-year-old Queen “seemed to have grown weaker” since her last public appearance.
“I had no feeling that the end would come so soon,” Truss was quoted as writing in the Daily Mail.
Truss’s memoirs detail the “swift action” when news reached Number 10 (the UK Prime Minister’s Residence and Office) that the Queen would not be able to attend the official swearing-in of the new ministers by video link as previously planned.
“My black mourning dress was brought from my home in Greenwich, south London,” Truss wrote.
There were frantic phone calls to Buckingham Palace. I began to think about what I would say if the horrible thought came true.
On Thursday we received the official news that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral. It seemed completely unreal to receive this news on only my second full day as Prime Minister. I found myself thinking in shock, ‘Why me, why now?
Truss also shares details of his second and final meeting with Queen Elizabeth in the book. This meeting led to the Queen’s last public photograph before she died at her residence in Scotland on September 8, 2022.
The Queen was photographed with her cane, smiling warmly and welcoming Truss in front of the living room fireplace.
Truss wrote:
On Tuesday, September 6, 2022, he greeted me standing up in the guest room. I was told that he made a special effort to greet me in this way, but he showed no sign of discomfort during our meeting.
This was only my second one-on-one meeting with her. In our previous meeting after I was removed from a different post in the government, she had pointed out that it was difficult to be a woman in politics.
We talked about politics for about 20 minutes, and in his usual intelligent and playful manner, it was clear that he was fully aware of everything that was going on. There was no sense that the end would come so soon.
Truss, who lasted just 49 days at Number 10 Downing Street after his disastrous mini-budget caused economic chaos, also revealed that the Queen told him to “pace himself”.
“Maybe I should have listened to him,” the former UK Prime Minister said.
But Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, defended his approach in his memoir, suggesting that the “pro-remain in the European Union” Treasury, the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility were “obstacles to our plans”.
