Nine things we have learned about Liz Truss during her leadership campaign

She grew up in Yorkshire

Elizabeth Truss has pledged support to reinvigorate grassroots Conservative associations (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Liz Truss spent her later childhood in Leeds and attended a comprehensive school in the well-to-do suburb of Roundhay.

She has said throughout her campaign that she saw children at Roundhay School “let down by low expectations, poor educational standards and a lack of opportunity”.

The claim has been rebuffed by some of her contemporaries, who say it was a good school which had several students go on to Russell Group universities and the civil service fast-stream.

Her first attempts at running as an MP were both in Yorkshire.

In 2001, she stood in the then-safe Labour seat of Hemsworth, losing by 15,636 votes to left-winger Jon Trickett - who by coincidence is also an alum of Roundhay School.

In Calder Valley in 2005, she came closer, losing by just 1,367 votes to Labour’s Christine McCafferty.

... But she spent her early childhood in Paisley

Elizabeth Truss (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Though she was born in Oxford, the Truss family moved to Paisley when she was four.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, she said: "I once had a very Scottish accent. It was a Paisley Glaswegian accent and when I got to Leeds I used to be known as 'Haggis Basher'. That was my nickname."

She has touted her Scottish credentials - saying she is a “child of the Union” and arguing that she is the best candidate to ensure Scotland does not become independent.

Her father is said to be ‘so appalled’ by her politics

Liz Truss (front centre) stands with her supporters as she arrives for a hustings event at Perth Concert Hall in Perth, Scotland, as part of the campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party and the next prime minister. Picture date: Tuesday August 16, 2022. (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Ms Truss has made much of her left-wing upbringing, saying that her first political experience was attending a CND march in Paisley, aged eight, and arguing that she has been on a political journey since then.

And while her mother Priscilla has attended campaign events for her leadership bid, her father is said to be less supportive.

The Daily Express has reported one colleague of her father John Truss, emeritus professor of pure mathematics at the University of Leeds, saying that he is “so appalled” by his daughter’s “conversion to extreme right-wing politics” that it has had an impact on their relationship.

Another university source told the newspaper: “John is distraught at the policies his daughter is advocating in her bid to become PM.”

She got her start in politics as a Liberal Democrat

Ms Truss was not always a Conservative. While at Merton College, Oxford, she served as president of the university’s Liberal Democrat society.

She addressed the party’s 1994 conference, where she called for the abolition of the monarchy, and according to one of her contemporaries, she tried to woo students at the Freshers’ Fair by shouting: “Join the Lib Dems! We’ll legalise cannabis!”

She was first elected as a local councillor in London

She first gained elected office as a councillor in Greenwich, London, in 2006 - but that was also only after two unsuccessful attempts, having previously stood in 1998 and 2002.

That means that with her parliamentary bids included, Ms Truss had experienced four election defeats by the time she joined Greenwich Council.

During her leadership campaign, she has referred to her experience as a councillor, saying that it showed her why the country’s planning system needs reform.

She sat on the authority’s planning committee and has joked at several hustings events that those are “hours of my life I will never get back”.

Her book has been proving controversial

In her early years in parliament, Ms Truss co-authored Britannia Unchained with a number of other MPs.

It included the sentence (much quoted by her critics): "Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor."

Challenged over this, she claimed that deputy PM Dominic Raab had in fact written that chapter.

But in a new recording revealed by the Guardian this month, Ms Truss could be heard making similar points.

Speaking back when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, she said British workers needed “more graft” and suggested they lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals.

A source from her campaign told the Independent that the comments “lacked context”.

She has Christian values

Asked at a hustings event whether she is a person of faith, Ms Truss said: “I share the values of the Christian faith and the Church of England, but I’m not a regular practising religious person.”

There has been confusion over whether she’d ban LGBT conversion therapy

A Gay Pride flag flying on City Hall. PHOTO: ANTONY KELLY (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2010)

As minister for women and equalities, Ms Truss has been responsible for progressing the government’s plans to ban LGBT conversion therapy - the practice of trying to make gay, bisexual and trans people straight or cisgender.

The policy, first promised by Theresa May in 2018, remains undelivered.

At a recent event hosted by the Conservative Christian Fellowship, Ms Truss's campaign director Iain Duncan Smith MP said: “I hate it. Can I be clear about that?

“I think when you start banning things like this you enter a maze of problems.

“And I absolutely believe that Liz is very much there.”

Approached about the comments by OpenDemocracy, a campaign spokesman dodged the direct question of whether she would ban it, but said she would “ensure that LGBT people can live their lives free from harm”.

She backs a new QEH hospital

Supports holding up part of the ceiling at the hospital (Image: Chris Bishop)

In an interview with this newspaper, Ms Truss confirmed she was “very committed” to ensuring the crumbling Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn is re-built.

“I’ve seen the fact for myself that it [the QEH] is being held up by stilts, which shouldn’t be happening and we need to urgently sort it out,” she said.