'Why me, why now?' Liz Truss opens up on her reaction to Queen's death

Norfolk MP and former Prime Minister Liz Truss has revealed she thought "why me, why now?" when she learned the Queen had died.

The former PM said she went into a "state of shock" when she was told of the news just two days into her short-lived premiership.

Ms Truss’s brief premiership lasted just 49 days as she was forced to quit after then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts panicked the markets and tanked the pound.

When asked last year if she would ever want to be PM again Liz Truss simply answered "no".

Queen Elizabeth II met with Liz Truss in Balmoral (Image: PA)

In an extract published on Mail+ of her memoir Ten Years to Save the West, the MP for South West Norfolk, said: “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.”

The “machine kicked into action” when word reached Number 10 that the Queen would not able to join via videolink, as planned, the formal swearing in of new ministers, Ms Truss said.

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

“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?'”

The former PM said that in another audience with the Queen before entering Number 10, the monarch had remarked that “being a woman in politics was tough”.

She added: “I knew I’d never forget my last meeting with Her Majesty — and especially what she said towards the end of our talk in her drawing room. Being Prime Minister, she warned me, is incredibly ageing. She also gave me two words of advice: ‘Pace yourself.’

“Maybe I should have listened.”