Saturday 24 September 2022 08:50 PM DANIEL JOHNSON argues Liz Truss hasn't put a foot wrong since entering No10  trends now

Few incoming prime ministers are dealt as nightmarish a hand as that given to Liz Truss. As if a European war, an energy crisis and rampant inflation were not enough, the death of our most beloved monarch presented an extraordinary challenge to a PM who had barely got her feet under her desk at Downing Street.

Just two days after kissing hands at Balmoral, she found herself called upon to lead the nation in mourning after the longest and happiest reign in our history.

The Queen's funeral was a great comfort to many, but Britain remains a bereaved country, crying out for leadership.

To the surprise of many, Miss Truss is providing it. Apparently undaunted by the in-tray from hell, she hasn't put a foot wrong so far — and I believe the nation is warming to her.

Within minutes of the sad news, the Prime Minister delivered a pitch-perfect tribute on the steps of No 10 and in the ensuing days she behaved with notable dignity.

Some may criticise her dress sense or accuse her of lacking charisma, but in Westminster Abbey her voice rang out clear as a bell as she read the second lesson at Her Majesty's funeral.

Not for her the antics of Sir Tony Blair after the death of Diana, when he upstaged the Royal Family by coining the term 'the people's princess'.

Miss Truss mourned our sovereign with the rest of us, never once seeking to exploit our grief for political advantage.

Now, having demonstrated tact and decorum at a time of national sorrow, the PM is ready to devote herself to the everyday business of governing — as she showed yesterday with her dynamic new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivering a bombshell of a budget to revive the economy.

What Liz Truss and Kwarteng are doing goes far beyond cutting taxes: they are determined to reform the fiscal and regulatory system to unleash the still-unrealised potential released by Brexit.

Through slashing income tax, stamp duty and business levies, Miss Truss has signalled the dawn of a new, more ambitious and confident era for our country. The British Gulliver is at last breaking free of the Lilliputian legacy of Euro-stagnation.

The PM comes across as a plain-speaking woman of principle, with the inner steel to put her principles into practice.

Asked if she was prepared to be unpopular the other day, her BBC interviewer was taken aback to hear the reply: 'Yes, yes, I am.' Like the Iron Lady herself, Miss Truss is not for turning.

What could be more unpopular — at least with the BBC and the anti-British elites — than abolishing the highest rate of income tax? Yet the dynamic duo of Truss and Kwarteng have just done it.

She has also set her face against the nanny state. To the horror of the health lobby, Miss Truss has signalled an intention to ditch the sugar tax — a charge on soft drink makers whose products are deemed too sugar-laden — on the grounds that it is not the place of government to interfere with citizens' dietary choices.

She also plans to excise some of the more censorious clauses in the Online Safety Bill. 'What I want to make sure is we protect the under-18s from harm, but we also make sure free speech is allowed, so there may be some tweaks required,' she said. Amen to that.

On the global stage she is reasserting Britain's unique role in the fight for freedom and prosperity. This week, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York — a tough test for any new leader — she radiated confidence as she echoed Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in her bold defence of free markets and low taxes.

'We want people to keep more of the money they earn,' she told the other world leaders, 'because we believe that freedom trumps instruction.'

Miss Truss reckons the British can set an example by showing our trading partners that we are open for business and the dictators that we mean business.

Like Mrs Thatcher, who helped win the Cold War by proving capitalism's superiority over socialism in creating prosperity, our PM has grasped that only by generating wealth can we hope to win hearts and minds across the globe.

'The free world needs this economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition,' she said.

In what was certainly her most substantial speech so far, Miss Truss again proved her detractors wrong. She may not be able to match the oratory of her greatest predecessors, but she, too, can be magisterial when she needs to be. This was a speech that Boris Johnson, or indeed Winston Churchill, would have been proud to give.

Our Prime Minister hurled defiance at Vladimir Putin's latest nuclear 'sabre rattling' and poured scorn on his bid to 'claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms'.

Rising to the challenge of what she sees as a turning point in that struggle for liberty, the PM declared: 'This is a decisive moment in British history, in the history of [the UN], and in the history of freedom.'

At a time when the battle between the West and its enemies is no longer a Cold War but a hot one raging across the steppes of Ukraine, Miss Truss insisted that 'Britain's commitment to this is total'.

Away from the podium, she engaged in a frenetic series of 'bilats', diplomatic shorthand for bilateral meetings with other world leaders. First came a fence-mending encounter with French President Emmanuel Macron following her notorious 'friend or foe' speech during the Tory leadership campaign.

She also met U.S. President Joe Biden, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. There was a

read more from dailymail.....