Rishi Sunak has mocked his predecessor Liz Truss after being quizzed about her deep state conspiracies.
Ms Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, has previously blamed the “deep state” for “sabotaging” her tax-cutting plans from Kwasi Kwarteng’s notoriously disastrous 2022 mini-budget.
She has echoed the rhetoric of Donald Trump, who claimed a secretive network of powerful officials and state institutes were plotting his downfall.
In a recent article for Fox News TV she said: “In too much of the free world, the left has been in charge for too long and the results are all too plain to see. Their agents are only too active in public and private institutions and what we have come to know as the administrative state and the deep state.”
Mr Sunak was questioned about the comments by MPs at the Commons Liaison Committee on Wednesday.
Tory MP William Wragg asked the prime minister: “What are your thoughts or comments on your predecessor when she says she was undermined by, quote, ‘the deep state’.”
Mr Sunak laughed as he replied: “I think that’s probably a question for her rather than me.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quizzed about conspiracies
Mr Wragg pressed him on the issue again: “Is there a deep state? Are you part of it? Am I part of it?”
The laughter continued as the Tory leader replied: “Probably a question for her… I probably wouldn’t tell you if I was, would I? And we wouldn’t tell anyone else either, would we?”
Ms Truss has previously been criticised for her claims stating she had seen it for herself first-hand as unnamed figures and bodies “sabotaged my efforts in Britain to cut taxes, reduce the size of government and restore democratic accountability”.
She has struggled to explain what she means by the deep state.
Liz Truss continues to blame shadowy figures for her failed tenure as prime minister
Her brief period in No 10 is best remembered for her catastrophic mini-Budget which sent the pound into a nose dive and sparked a crash in the markets.
The failed PM is now striving to place herself at the forefront of a new brand of right-wing politics, recently lauching her so-called Popular Conservatism movement.
The Popular Conservatism group claims it is not a direct challenge to Mr Sunak’s leadership, but it wants to pile pressure on the prime minister to cut taxes, adopt hardline policies on immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
