LONDON — When the longest-reigning monarch in British history gives you advice on endurance, it might be wise to listen.
But Liz Truss, who had a record short stint as U.K. prime minister, admits to not heeding a tip from the late Queen Elizabeth II in her upcoming book, “Ten Years to Save the West.”
According to extracts of the book published by the Guardian this week, the queen told the incoming prime minister to “pace yourself” when the two leaders met in September 2022, just days before Elizabeth’s death.
“Maybe I should have listened,” Truss reflects.
The former prime minister was in office for less than two months, before being ousted by her party in the wake of a chaotic budget.
The book, due for publication April 16, has been billed as a manifesto for the future of conservative politics rather than a memoir, although it is reported to contain numerous anecdotes from her political career, including her stint as foreign secretary.
The mourning period following the queen’s death was “a long way from my natural comfort zone,” Truss writes, according to the Guardian. The news, she adds, left her thinking: “Why me? Why now?”
According to the news outlet, Truss recalls being “suddenly overwhelmed by the emotion” of watching the queen’s coffin being brought from the Scottish royal residence Balmoral to Edinburgh, and says she broke down “into floods of tears on the sofa.”
Since being forced from office, Truss has hardly shied away from the spotlight. The ex-prime minister has been vocal on China, and claimed the “deep state” was responsible for the end of her ill-fated premiership. She’s addressed conservatives in Washington and taken potshots at her successor Rishi Sunak’s economic plans.
The opposition Labour Party, keen to remind voters of the chaotic Truss administration, accused her of “betraying the confidence” of the late queen — with Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting branding Truss “a shameless self-publicist.”