Liz Truss thought being called a 'human hand grenade' was a compliment

Liz Truss regarded being known as a "human hand grenade" as a compliment, her former aide has said.

Speaking to the BBC, Asa Bennett - who wrote the former prime minister's speeches - said she took the insult, that Boris Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings used about her, as a "compliment, not an insult".

"She's been dismissed and mocked by people in Westminster and the media over the years... And so she's found then that she could laugh these things off," he said.

"She can embrace the jokes, and that's a part of her personality. Then she could see that she was bullet-proof as a result."

Truss resigned after a disastrous seven weeks in power in which she messed up the economy and lost the confidence of those in her party - in case you had forgotten.

Bennett also said Truss demanded "fast action" to put "rocket boosters" on the British economy.

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It was a "bitter regret for us all...it didn't come off like that," he added.

"I think Liz felt that she's gambled before in her life and then she could gamble again on this," he added. "And yes, the stakes would be high, but the pay-off was worth it in the sense of taking that fast action.

"And at the same time Liz was someone who knew what she thought, known it for years, and so finally had the biggest chance yet to make her programme a reality.

"Of course, it will be no doubt a bitter regret for us all and her most of all that it didn't come off like that."

"I think Liz was someone who would take this sort of Spinal Tap approach, turn it up to 11, and only if necessary, turn it down again," he added.

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