British workers need to work harder: Liz Truss in leaked audio

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are competing for Conservative Party leadership and U.K. Prime Minister’s post

 In a leaked audio, the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary and candidate for the Conservative Party leadership and the Prime Minister’s post, Liz Truss, said that British workers needed ‘more graft‘ (hard work).

Ms. Truss is heard saying that British workers’ hourly productivity is less than a comparator (the name of which is not available in the recording) and she attributes this to “a combination of skill and application”.

Also read: Second survey shows Liz Truss ahead of Rishi Sunak in U.K. PM race

The story was first reported by the  Guardian, which posted the leaked audio and parts of the transcript on its website. The recording dates back to when Ms. Truss was the Chief Secretary at the Treasury during the 2017-19 period.

“If you go to China, it’s quite different, I can assure you,” she says at one point, referring to the work culture.

Ms. Truss says that there’s a “slight thing” in Britain of wanting “easy answers”, and this was her reflection of the election (presumably the June 2017 election in which Boris Johnson succeeded Theresa May) and the 2016 Brexit referendum which resulted in the U.K. leaving the E.U.

“… We say it’s all Europe that’s causing these huge problems; it’s all these migrants causing these problems,” she is heard saying in the audio. “But actually what needs to happen is more … more graft. It’s not a popular message.”