Liz Truss thought ‘why me, why now?’ after Queen’s dying, new memoir reveals | EUROtoday

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Liz Truss has revealed she thought “why me, why now?” when she realized the Queen had died simply two days after she was sworn in as prime minister.

In her new guide, Ten Years to Save the West, Truss admitted she went into “a state of shock” when informed of Queen Elizabeth II’s dying in 2022.

Of her historic assembly at Balmoral in Scotland, which occurred simply two days earlier than the monarch’s dying, Truss says the 96-year-old Queen “seemed to have grown frailer” since she had final been within the public eye.

However, she wrote in an excerpt revealed within the Daily Mail that there “simply wasn’t any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.”

The memoir particulars how the “machine kicked into action” when phrase reached Number 10 that the Queen wouldn’t have the ability to be part of through video hyperlink, as deliberate, for the formal swearing-in of recent ministers.

“My black mourning dress was fetched from my house in Greenwich, south London,” she wrote.

“Frantic phone calls took place with Buckingham Palace. I started to think about what on earth I was going to say if the unthinkable happened.

“On Thursday, we received the solemn news that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral. To be told this on only my second full day as Prime Minister felt utterly unreal. In a state of shock, I found myself thinking: ‘Why me, why now?’”

In the guide, she shares particulars of her first and ultimate assembly with the Queen.

The assembly produced the final public {photograph} of the late Queen earlier than she died on September 8, 2022 at her Scottish residence.

The Queen was pictured utilizing a strolling stick and smiling warmly as she greeted Ms Truss in entrance of an open hearth in her sitting room.

Ms Truss wrote: “That Tuesday, September 6, 2022, she was standing up as she greeted me in her drawing room. I was told she’d made a special effort to do so but she gave no hint of discomfort throughout our discussion.

“This was only my second one-on-one audience with her. On the previous occasion, after I’d been removed from a different job in the Government, she’d remarked that being a woman in politics was tough.

“For about 20 minutes, we discussed politics — and it was clear she was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty. There simply wasn’t any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.”

Ms Truss, whose tenure in Downing Street lasted simply 49 days after her disastrous mini-budget unleashed financial chaos, additionally revealed the late Queen informed her to “pace yourself”.

“Maybe I should have listened,” the previous PM stated.

But the MP for South West Norfolk defended her method in her memoir, suggesting the “pro-Remain” Treasury, Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility had been “barriers to our plans”.