Taylor Swift Fans Link New Album ‘Midnights’ to Liz Truss’ Exit as U.K. PM
Liz Truss #LizTruss
Taylor Swift has been unexpectedly linked to U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss’ announcement that she is stepping down just 44 days in the role.
Six weeks after succeeding Boris Johnson, Truss announced her resignation while standing outside No. 10 Downing Street on Thursday after market confidence in the U.K. economy dramatically waned and the value of the pound plummeted.
During her brief speech, Truss said that she was “elected by the Conservative party with a mandate to change” the course of the nation’s low economic growth.
“We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance,” she said. “And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. I recognize, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party.
Liz Truss’ Resignation As U.K. PM After 45 Days Sparks Ridicule
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“I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative party. This morning I met the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady. We have agreed there will be a leadership election to be completed in the next week.
“This will ensure we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen.”
As the U.K. grapples with the prospect of welcoming a new leader in as many months, Swift’s fans were quick to point out that fellow Swiftie Truss announced her resignation just hours before the release of the pop star’s new album, Midnights. The star’s 10th original studio album dropped at midnight on Friday.
Sharing a photo of Truss and Swift posing together, one fan tweeted: “Liz Truss quit now so she can spend tomorrow streaming Midnights by Taylor Swift without distraction.”
That sentiment was echoed by a number of other fans, with one dubbing Truss a “true Swiftie” in their tongue-in-cheek analysis of her reason for resigning.
Quipped another: “Damn I know Liz Truss is a Swiftie but you didn’t need to resign to listen to Midnights. Bit dramatic.”
Truss’ status as a Swift fan is so well documented that Britain’s Channel 4 News waved goodbye to the departing prime minister with a musical tribute.
In a clip of the broadcast, which has gone viral on Twitter, a reporter said: “Ms. Truss said that her favorite song was ‘Blank Space’ by Taylor Swift. We’ll leave you with that and some images of her. Goodnight.”
A montage of images showing Truss’ short stint in office were shown as Swift sang: “Nice to meet you, where you been/ I could show you incredible things/ Magic, madness, heaven, sin/ Saw you there and I thought/ Oh my god, look at that face/ You look like my next mistake/ Love’s a game, wanna play?”
Thanks to deft editing, there were swift image cuts as Swift uttered “magic, madness, heaven, sin.” The camera also zoomed in on Truss in time with: “Oh my God, look at that face.”
Truss showed her admiration for Swift when she posed for a selfie with the star at a BAFTA event back in February 2019.
Posting the image on her Instagram account, the politician wrote: “Look what you made me do, Taylor…. #squadgoals #swiftwork #trouble.”
In December 2019, she took inspiration from Swift’s hit “Look What You made Me Do” again, when she shared a photo of herself wearing a phone headset as she sat in an office.
“I’m sorry, Liz Truss can’t come to the phone right now….. cause she’s #ringing2win,” the politician captioned the post.
Truss made headlines in March 2020, when she quoted Swift track The Man while delivering a speech during the International Women’s Day debate.
Then the Minister for Women and Equalities, Truss said as she discussed barriers women face: “It is your talent ideas and character that matter, not anything else.
“So in the words of the brilliant Taylor Swift in her new song, women aren’t left ‘running as fast as they can, wondering if they’d get there quicker if they were a man.'”
In September of this year, Truss walked out onstage for a debate to the soundtrack of Swift’s song “Change” for a debate.
After she won the leadership election, Truss opted for Swift’s “Long Live” as her track of choice.
Following Truss’ resignation as prime minister, the leader of the opposition, the Labour Party’s Sir Keir Starmer, called for an immediate general election, rather than another Conservative leadership contest.
The last contest was triggered after the resignation of Johnson in July. Truss was able to win after defeating former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.
However, as prime minister, Truss came under intense pressure after a mini-budget was announced on September 23 that introduced billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts. This led to a loss of market confidence in the U.K. economy and the value of the pound plummeting.
In response, Truss fired Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, and brought in a replacement who reversed most of his tax cuts. Following this, Kwarteng and other Tory MPs claimed that Truss’ days in the role were numbered.
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