Liz Truss targets ‘trans activists’, Blair and ‘quangos’ as she explains political meltdown at right-wing US conference

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss is now placing blame for her meltdown after just 49 days in Number 10 Downing Street on Sir Tony Blair and a slew of government agencies who she says do not care about the lives of average Britons.

Speaking alongside ex-Brexit Party and Ukip leader Nigel Farage at an “international summit” on the eve of the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, Ms Truss told attendees her tenure as prime minister was marred by a “huge establishment backlash”.

She also said some people joining the civil service “who are essentially activists – they might be trans activists, they might be environmental extremists” were part of a “wholly new problem”.

Her comments about “trans activists” come after her successor as UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, caused a storm with a joke in the House of Commons about trans people on the day the mother of Brianna Ghey – a trans teenager whose brutal murder shocked Britain – was visiting Parliament.

Speaking in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ms Truss said: “What has happened in Britain over the past 30 years, is power that used to be in the hands of politicians has been moved to quangos and bureaucrats and lawyers. So what you find is you find a democratically elected government actually unable to enact policies,.”

Interrupted by moderator and former Trump deputy national security adviser KT McFarland, who asked about the meaning of “quangos,” Ms Truss replied that she meant “Quasi-Non Governmental Organisations”. Quangos are administrative bodies outside the civil service that receive funding from the government, such as the Forestry Commission and the British Council.