Britain Needs Liz Truss To Echo The Monarch's Flexible Diplomacy Simon Tisdall

What will other leaders and nations make of Liz Truss in Britain’s hour of trial? This untested prime minister must now lead the country through a crisis of unity and confidence that may be triggered by the death of her infinitely better-known namesake, Elizabeth II.

The global spotlight will illuminate the United Kingdom in coming days in ways that would make a more experienced leader quake. In Truss’s words , the Queen was “the rock on which modern Britain was built”. Yet Truss came to power last week vowing to replace that model with one of her own. She talks of deepening post-Brexit UK alliances, and of constructing “a world where free nations are assertive and in the ascendant”. But her actions point not to a “ global Britain ” but to a forlorn Billy-no-mates.

The death of the monarch, who was known and respected by presidents and prime ministers around the world will inevitably weaken Britain’s influence, leverage and “soft power” – whatever Charles III may do to maintain global connections. Following its withdrawal from the EU, a self-isolating UK, excluded from collective European decision-making, is in any case increasingly bypassed, patronised and ridiculed by allies and enemies alike. By any measure – GDP , currency, debt, influence, military heft – Britain is drowning, not waving.