Liz Truss claims Britain would have launched Mars missions by 2040 had she stayed

Mars claim in a new book

Liz Truss argues in her new book, Bank Job, that Britain would already have run successful Mars missions within a few years had her 49-day premiership not been cut short. The book came out on Monday, 26 October, and presents itself as an account of how the Bank of England destabilised the bond market and brought down her government. Its closing chapter sketches the Britain she believes would exist in 2040 if her policies had been given time to take hold. The passage is framed as a hypothetical scenario, not a forecast. She presents the launches as already under way from the country's spaceport, and the line reads:

“Several missions to Mars have now been launched from Britain's space port.”

A 2040 she would have preferred

Beyond the space programme, the chapter sets out what she calls more grounded policy aims. Her imagined 2040 has no European Union laws left in force in Britain and a permissive regime for artificial intelligence. Lower energy costs and faster planning approvals, in her telling, have made the UK a leader in AI. She also imagines Bitcoin receiving tax treatment suited to its use in commercial transactions, with no central bank digital currency introduced. The Independent's reviewer found the book dense and unconvincing, and noted that it casts the Treasury, the Bank of England and Conservatives including Michael Gove, Mel Stride and James Cartlidge as having engineered the 2022 crisis.

Blaming the Bank and the Treasury

Since leaving office after a revolt in her own party, Truss has rejected claims that her economic decisions caused the pound to crash. Those decisions included a large support package for household energy bills and tax cuts funded by new borrowing. She has instead pointed at the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility, accusing them of working against her. The new book takes direct aim at the Bank. POLITICO reports that the Bank sold the equivalent of the £80 billion of gilts the day before the mini-budget, while HotNews reports that the Bank had proposed selling that amount before the mini-budget and then postponed the sale as turmoil spread.

Background to her 49 days in office

Truss held office from 6 September 2022, a tenure described as the shortest in the country's history. She announced her resignation on 20 October, 44 days into the job, and remained in post until Rishi Sunak succeeded her five days later. She lost her House of Commons seat at the 2024 general election. Since then she has been involved in launching the Conservative Political Action Conference in Britain. Her post-office criticism of the Bank, Treasury and budget watchdog continues the argument she made after her resignation. The chart below sets out the key dates from her premiership and after.