A sensible husband and two teenagers: Liz Truss moves into Downing Street with her family

Like her predecessors, Liz Truss moves to Downing Street with her family, her husband and their two teenage daughters, who must get used to this new life at the front of the stage.

Hugh O’Leary, Liz Truss’ husband of 22 years, was by her side as the Conservatives claimed victory on Monday, then accompanied his wife to enter Downing Street on Tuesday.

At 48, the chartered accountant, who graduated from the London School of Economics, “could walk down the street without even being recognized in Downing Street”, quipped The Mirror newspaper recently.

Despite his long political involvement with the Conservatives, he stayed away from his wife’s campaign this summer – he and Liz Truss met at the party’s annual conference in 1997. “She doesn’t want a major public role,” Ms Truss told The Telegraph at the start of the campaign.

Observers compare him to the husband of former prime minister Theresa May, who, unlike the outgoing prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, chose to keep a low profile.

According to The Guardian newspaper, he “likes to look after the housework during the week, while his wife is busy at Westminster”.

The Mirror quoted Liz Truss as saying: “Whenever I need a late-night discussion on supply-side policy reform or economic metrics, there’s always someone I can turn to.”

Hugh O’Leary, who is CFO of a property firm, may continue to work from the couple’s home in south-east London or find an office near Westminster, The Guardian understands, citing a friend.

He was elected MP three years later, as was his wife, who revealed her extramarital affair in 2006 with a married Conservative MP, who wanted to enter politics in the early 2000s but never won an election.

The couple have two daughters, Frances, 16, and Liberty, 13, who are also heading to Downing Street, according to birthday cake photos their mother posted on Instagram. The teenage girls are the first to live there since Boris Johnson’s children were born when he was prime minister, or since David Cameron’s young children, and former Labor prime minister Tony Blair’s 25 years ago.

– “Very excited” –

Former US President Barack Obama’s two daughters, like Malia and Sasha in America, are set to become the most scrutinized teenagers in the British media.

According to The Guardian, they are “very excited” to move into Number 10 or Number 11, the most spacious apartment for many Prime Ministers’ private apartments, whose back door opens directly onto St James’s Park.

“They are already planning to sleep with their friends at Downing Street and Checkers (the Prime Minister’s country home), with its large garden and heated swimming pool,” the newspaper said.

Francis participated in the digital team of his mother’s campaign. “France might be a little more centrist and Liberty a little more conservative, but they both inspire me a lot,” Liz Truss told The Times during the campaign, adding that she talks politics with them “all the time.”

“I’m very open with my daughters. I think that’s the only way to act because it’s a very stressful life,” the now-prime minister said, though he’s very protective of his private life.

Apart from a few posted by their mother on Instagram, there are few photos of her daughters, showing them walking from behind in a park in 2019.

Now that the family has moved into Downing Street, it’s unclear whether such discretion is still possible.

In the past, Tony Blair’s son Euan Blair embarrass his Prime Minister father by making headlines when he was photographed dead drunk in central London at the age of 16.