‘Turnip Taliban’ leader accuses Liz Truss of ‘cavorting with pro-Trump extremists’ in US

The leader of the so-called “Turnip Taliban” Tory rebels bidding to oust Liz Truss in her Norfolk constituency has launched a blistering attack on her for “cavorting with right wingextremists in the US”.

James Bagge, who plans to stand against the former prime minister as an Independent in Norfolk south west at the next election, denounced her for “declaring kinship with Donald Trump and Nigel Farage” at a gathering of the right wing American group CPAC last week.

And the lawyer and ex-Army officer criticised her for using the rally to blame the British “deep state” — her Trump style euphemism for Whitehall, quangos and other state institutions — for the economic crisis that ended her disastrous short lived term in Downing St in 2022.

Ms Truss had “little judgement” and only herself to blame for her downfall, said Mr Bagge.

James Bagge, lawyer and ex-Army officer, criticised Ms Truss for using the CPAC rally to blame the British ‘deep state’

Far from sabotaging her administration, it was the very institutions she railed against that had saved the nation from her reckless policies, he said.

“Ms Truss talks of democratically elected governments unable to enact policies because they have been blocked by the ‘economic establishment’ and of a civil service populated by activists,” he told The Independent.

“Her problem, which she fails to acknowledge, is that she enacted a policy of her own choice despite warnings and then immediately tried to pin the blame on her hapless chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng.

“But it was the financial markets, not the establishment, which determined the failure of her completely ruinous mini-budget and it was the actions of those she now dismisses that saved the day, namely, the Bank of England and the