Liz Truss ignored advice to slow down given by late Queen before her passing, reveals ex-PM
LIZ Truss has revealed she ignored advice to slow down given by Queen Elizabeth days before the monarch’s death.
In her new book, she admitted she should have heeded the 96-year-old’s words when she was sworn in as new PM in September 2022.
Ms Truss instead charged ahead with radical economic reforms which led to her quitting No10 after 49 days.
The Queen was seen using a walking stick and smiling as she greeted Ms Truss in her Balmoral sitting room.
It was the last public photograph of Elizabeth before she died two days later.
Ms Truss recalled: “We spent around 20 minutes discussing politics.
“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 ageing.
“She also gave me two words of advice — ‘Pace yourself’. Maybe I should have listened.”
In Ten Years To Save The West, she says the Queen’s death came as a “profound shock”, which left her thinking: “Why me? Why now?”
She revealed the sight of the Queen’s coffin on television sent her “into floods of tears on the sofa” as she became “overwhelmed by the emotion of it all”.
Ms Truss, who read The Second Lesson at the late Queen’s Westminster Abbey state funeral, admitted the period of mourning was “a long way from my natural comfort zone”.