Liz Truss says Britons need to work harder and be more like the Chinese

Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss said British workers needed “more graft” in leaked comments.

Truss suggested Britons lacked the “skill and application” of foreign nationals.

Labour said her comments were “offensive” and “effectively brand British workers as lazy”.

The foreign secretary did not deny making the comments and said productivity needed to improve.

Truss made the comments in the audio when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, a role she held between 2017 and 2019.

The report did not reveal the source of the audio recording, parts of which were redacted.

In the two-minute clip, Truss said British workers’ “mindset and attitude” were partly to blame for them producing less per hour than their foreign counterparts, suggesting they needed “more graft”.

Truss said in the recording: “Essentially it’s partly a mindset and attitude thing I think. Yeah, its working culture basically. If you go to China it’s quite different, I can assure you…

“There’s a fundamental issue of British working culture. Essentially if we’re going to be a richer country and a more prosperous country, that needs to change.

“But I don’t think people are that keen to change that.”