Margaret Thatcher would never have tried to cut benefits amid the cost of living crisis, Conservative former minister David Davis has said.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme today, he said while the Tory leader modelled herself on Ms Thatcher, she should “actually model herself really on Thatcher”.
“Thatcher was strategically terribly bold, but actually tactically incredibly careful. And (Liz Truss) should do the same,” he said.
“All this stuff about, let’s say one of the controversies, cutting benefits. Well, that’s not a real option. Margaret Thatcher would never have tried that, and under these circumstances with the winter coming up that we have.”
Asked what he would say to those in his party who want to change leader, Mr Davis said: “Well, firstly, you haven’t got time for that.
“It takes a year, more than a year, to replace a leader in the Tory Party. Sometimes it takes two or three years.”
Addressing Ms Truss’s start as prime minister, he added: “It would be a very, very unwise person who tried to make a judgment over two years on what’s happened in four weeks.”