Liz Truss resigned as Britain’s prime minister on Thursday. She went down in a spectacular blaze of glory. It all started with Queen Elizabeth II passing away shortly after meeting Truss for the hand-kissing formation-of-government moment in Balmoral, then Truss managed to survive the official mourning period as she plotted her hard-right deranged tax cuts for the rich, she oversaw the British pound massively weakened, she watched as the Bank of England had to step in with emergency measures to ensure that the economy didn’t completely collapse, and then she did nothing as Tory-on-Tory crime occurred on Wednesday in Parliament. Forty-four days of chaos, bad policy, violence, death, economic collapse, and she gets a generous allowance for the rest of her life even after she couldn’t outlast a head of lettuce.
Liz Truss is eligible for a taxpayer-funded allowance capped at 115,000 pounds ($129,000) a year for the rest of her life.
Despite her short time in office, Ms. Truss became eligible on Thursday for what’s called the Public Duty Costs Allowance — a government reimbursement plan for staff and salary costs incurred by former prime ministers “arising from their special position in public life” after they leave office, according to the government’s website.
This has drawn scorn, however, from some of Ms. Truss’s political opponents, who have called for her to be refused the payment because of what they see as her role in Britain’s political and economic turmoil.
“There is no way that she should be permitted to access the same £115,000 a year for life fund as her recent predecessors — all of whom served for well over two years,” said Christine Jardine, the spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office of the Liberal Democrats, in a statement.
“Truss’s legacy is an economic disaster — for which the Conservatives are making taxpayers foot the bill,” Ms. Jardine said, adding that the potential payout would leave “a bitter taste in the mouth of the millions of people struggling with spiraling bills and eye-watering mortgage rate rises thanks to the Conservatives’ economic mismanagement.”
I mean… we have similar issues here in America. Former presidents get a pension and Secret Service protection after they’ve left office, and it pisses me off that Donald Trump is getting money and protection even after he literally tried to murder public officials by inciting an insurrection. In Truss’s case, it does feel like there should be some kind of mechanism to introduce a “threshold” measure, as in “if you haven’t served as prime minister for a certain amount of time, you don’t get this kind of pension.” Apparently, John Major and Tony Blair have both received this “allowance” following their prime ministerial reigns. Which makes sense, given they both served for seven/eight years. No one knows if Boris Johnson will take the money. But it looks like BoJo has his eyes on a different prize: a return to 10 Downing.
Liz Truss has resigned as Britain’s prime minister and will step down after a week-long emergency contest to find her successor, she announced outside Downing Street, leaving the possibility of a return of Boris Johnson. Her resignation follows a turbulent 45 days in office, during which Truss’s mini-budget crashed the markets, making her the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister.
The prospect of Johnson returning to Downing Street is dominating debate amid fevered speculation the former premier is plotting a comeback.
Only six weeks after he left No 10, forced out by his own Conservative party MPs after a slew of scandals, supporters are calling on Johnson to run again for a second shot at leading the country. But as many supporters of Johnson call for his return, his critics have also made their feelings known, with some threatening to defect to Labour if he is chosen as leader again.
Who else is running? Several Tories have come out in support of Rishi Sunak as the successor to Truss. Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Penny Mordaunt are also expected to stand as leadership candidates.
Could Johnson really return? “I wouldn’t want to make any cast-iron prediction in this crazy world of politics at the moment but I think Boris Johnson returning is a very real possibility,” said the founder of the ConservativeHome website, Tim Montgomerie.
I wish Britain was real. I mean, come on – you guys FINALLY managed to toss out Boris Johnson over all of his lies and liquor-soaked parties and not even two menstrual cycles later, he’s on the comeback trail? My God. What a waste of time, money and effort.
Friday's Star: Lettuce REJOICE #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyStar #Star pic.twitter.com/I7YpriTDRz
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) October 20, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson departs for PMQs – Downing Street, London, England, UK on Wednesday 6 July, 2022.,Image: 705460463, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
- London, UK, 07th July, 2022. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns with a speech outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London, UK,Image: 705713740, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter / Avalon
- London, UK, 07th July, 2022. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns with a speech outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London, UK,Image: 705713754, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter / Avalon
- London, UK, 07th July, 2022. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns with a speech outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London, UK,Image: 705713807, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter / Avalon
- London, UK, 07th July, 2022. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigns with a speech outside 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London, UK,Image: 705714089, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Imageplotter / Avalon
- British Prime Minister Liz Truss departs for PMQs – Downing Street, London, England, UK on Wednesday 12 October, 2022.,Image: 729986083, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
- British Prime Minister Liz Truss departs for PMQs – Downing Street, London, England, UK on Wednesday 12 October, 2022.,Image: 729986199, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
- 14/10/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Liz Truss Press Conference. Prime Minister Liz Truss holds a press conference at No9 Downing Street announcing Jeremy Hunt as her new Chancellor of the Exchequer.,Image: 730772080, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons / Avalon
- 14/10/2022. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Liz Truss Press Conference. Prime Minister Liz Truss holds a press conference at No9 Downing Street announcing Jeremy Hunt as her new Chancellor of the Exchequer.,Image: 730772094, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: This image is for Editorial use purposes only. The Image can not be used for advertising or commercial use. The Image can not be altered in any form., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons / Avalon
She should only get a pension if the 🥬 gets one too. Fair is fair.
Agreed! Small point: what we are talking about is not a pension, it is an allowance – £115,000 for every. Single. Year. of the rest of her life. Bitch is what, 47?! Too depressed to do any maths but maybe someone more robust is up to it! And she will undoubtedly be making additional shitloads through various other unscrupulous methods. Fracking the Amazon rainforest? Selling guns to kiddies? Clubbing endangered species? Who knows.
It’s so ridiculous, my mind boggles. I did the math: assuming she lives to be 80 she’d be getting a total of almost 3.8 million £ over her lifetime. Now okay I assume it’s taxable but still, she was PM for only 44 days!
There for sure needs to be some kind of change made to that law, like a one year minimum or else the amount is adjusted downwards, something like that.
It’s an allowance that she is not allowed to spend on personal or parliamentary activities, it’s to fund other work – the idea being that this work would benefit the UK.
I still don’t think she should be entitled to it but it’s important to understand this isn’t an allowance for her as such (unlike Trumps pension).
I’m saltier than that, I’d only give a pension to the lettuce.
Not just the money, but a driver and security protection for the rest of her life, too.
I’m crying at the tabloid cover celebrating the victory of the lettuce
Yes! I’m here for the lettuce.
The pension’s the payment to be the face of the tax cuts.
“Lettuce rejoice”
Whoever wrote that headline deserves all the prizes. I’m howling.
Like the old song says “Money for nothing…”
Given how the currency has been destabilized, is that even anything special? lol
We’re in the bad place.
I mean, many Repugs want Trump to run in 2024 (from a prison cell, I hope), so there is no shortage of delusional followers of moronic, fraudulent autocrats, and it’s not confined to Salty Isle.
Should Truss get a lifetime pension when the lettuce doesn’t? LOL, no.
I think its just his very vocal delusional followers. Most of the Repubs are wanting DeSantis to run, who is much much worse. What he’s done to Florida should be a crime and our Texas governor is nipping at his heels for the title of most deplorable, despicable, hell all the d’s. I hope we can change a lot of things in this upcoming election! The Democrats have to at least hold both houses of Congress or we’re in trouble.
Bravo to those advocating for the lettuce to get to get an allowance. These headlines are sending me!
What a nightmare! Sending our best to our UK celebitches. We totally understand!
this is why we’re (my friends and I) all so utterly pi**ed off, this smirking tw*t gets money for being a total fu(king failure. I am very sweary today but my country is in turmoil and Boris the Buffoon is on his way home. Somebody make it stop….
Yeah, anyone wanting Boris back is a top tier masochist. Yet apparently he currently has the best odds. Like WTAF, England?? And yes, I do mean England, not Britain. I’ve always said I’d rather chew my own arm off than vote Tory… after the past few months would amend to both arms tbh.
Unfortunately there’s no chance in the world they’d call for a general election as Tories would be wiped out at the ballots.
I’m originally from Italy and the clusterf**k going on in the Italian Parliament is dignified in comparison to ours in Westminster.
I wish a paper would come up with a headline that finally confirms we’ve entered Banana Monarchy territory.
I think it’s partly to act as a deterrent to being susceptible to bribery. People wouldn’t be making this argument if she suffered a debilitating medical event or survived an assassination attempt. No matter how briefly or poorly she was in the position, she was still privy, presumably, to classified information. Unless she goes to prison, in which case she would still be paid for by the State, or defects to another country, I don’t see a valid argument against Truss receiving the pension and security. I’m sure it’s very frustrating to people, but it’s a slippery slope to change precedent just because Lady Lettuce sucks.
I take your point but after the tireless work she and her scumbag Tory predecessors have done to undermine the NHS to the point where literally thousands are dying waiting for ambulances…not sure how much sympathy I’d have even if she were to suffer a debilitating medical event.
And I also think that if you are forced to resign then it at least should be a pro-rata kind of thing? I mean 6 weeks is just insane.
Ireland has run out of popcorn. Please donate generously! :)))))
Sorry but we’re too poor now in England to either pay for popcorn or even pay for the custom charges to send anything into the EU 🍿
#popcorngate
Customs fees are charged to the recipient, but you’d still be on the hook for postage.
Oh God, this must be why Indiana finally beat out Nebraska on acreage of popcorn planted this year.
Obviously somebody at Camp Chesterfield connected with someone from the other side who said “Yo, all y’all need to plant popcorn NOW” and the members of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists SPREAD that news!
Dose anyone think this was all a ploy to bring Boris back at the “will of the people”
Approaching that idea as well
100%. This is definitely a conservative plan spearheaded by Boris. It was mentioned months ago. Kwasi and Truss were told to release policies that had been run through AI economic modeling with both the think tank and hedge fund they had been caught working with. The party knew the chaos that would ensue which is why they didn´t try to reframe trickle-down economics, the most hated policy from the 80s and 90s. They profited off it as their reward for tanking their careers and make the Boris problem look tiny in comparison.
BJ probably could return if he has powerful people propping him up. Unfortunately I wouldn’t rule it out. He may not be bothered, but perhaps Carrie has other ideas.
OTOH, Rishi Sunak might make another run for it. He’s rich enough not to beg for backhanded donations unlike Boris. Don’t know if he has enough support though. Nobody exactly missed him when Liz Truss started her premiership.
So she lasted four Scaramuccis.
This really isn’t the defense they think it is: “There is no way that she should be permitted to access the same £115,000 a year for life fund as her recent predecessors — all of whom served for well over two years,”
I would LOVE a job I could work for two whole years and receive a lifetime income of 115k per year. What a racket!
Right??? Makes sense that it was put in by John Major, such a Tory thing to do. It is apparently only eligible to be spent on things related to public-duties such as speaking at an event as an ex-PM, nothing personal. But still, that’s a massively hefty work expenses allowance!
She won’t receive it. It’s an allowance to fund work she may choose to do – like Blair setting up his institute. She’s not allowed to spend it on personal or parliamentary costs.
It’s been wall-to-wall shambolic chaos here over in the UK, I barely have words. The damage she, and those that supported her, have done in the short time since she won the leadership contest will take so long to recover from. I am in no way Conservative, but I hope to god they pick Rishi Sunak to take her place as he is clearly intelligent and will actually be able to set things back on the right course.
There is such cult-like behaviour in the Conservative Party currently though, the people who are actually saying they’ll support BJ again if he decides to throw his hat in the ring are hypnotised by him for some inexplicable reason. They are categorically insane, pure and simple. Were they not here for the pages and pages of catastrophes, lies, law-breaking and excess deaths caused by him and his group of sycophants? Not to mention he remains under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Committee (tl;dr – he eviscerated all the standards MPs are ever supposed to adhere to). The only saving grace is a lot of Conservative MPs have said they will stand down and trigger by-elections in their constituencies if he wins, so he may end up having no majority in Parliament anyway if the seats are swept up by Labour/the Lim Dems.
Just when I thought it can’t get any worse with America’s GOP, here come the Tories. At my company I have to wait another 3 years to become fully vested in the pension plan, but the British-PM-who-got-beaten-by-a-head-of lettuce gets to serve 44 days tanking the economy and receive £115,000 a year for all her efforts? I’m sorry, but NO. IMO, she should be stripped of that money and thrown out of the kingdom.
But then again, what do I know? My country still flips the bill for security detail for an orange blob who sold classified secrets to the highest bidder to line his pockets — AFTER he and his rabid fanbase tried to overthrow the government. He should have been convicted years ago BUT YET here we are with the elections coming up voting desperately to preserve our democracy and keep him and his supporters from destroying our country. Ok, I’ll just leave now and go cry in my little corner…
Are the US and the UK having a race to the bottom for stupid? Trump may get re-elected again and so may Boris “Pandemic Party” Johnson?!? SERIOUSLY?! I assume from current evidence they can’t find anyone any better, but they already know this guy sucks!
Not even two menstrual cycles later LMAO I cannot with you lolol