‘They got me’: Liz Truss lashes out at ‘economic establishment’ as she speaks at right wing conference in the US
23 February 2024, 14:20
Liz Truss addressed a right wing conference in the US, blaming her ‘downfall’ as PM on ‘antagonism’ from the ‘economic establishment.’
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The UK’s shortest-serving PM, who is still entitled to claim up to £115,000-a-year for the rest of her life, spoke at the CPAC conference where she repeated her claim that an "administrative state" and left-wing interests had undermined her policies in Downing Street.
She said: "Conservatives are now operating in what is now a hostile environment and we essentially need a bigger bazooka."
She claimed that the “catastrophic reaction” to the budget that cost her her job had come from the “usual suspects” in both the media and the corporate world, as well as government, the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England.
She accused “the left” of undermining the Conservative-led British government because they “did not accept that they lost at the ballot box”.
“They’ve been weaponizing our court system to stop us contorting illegal immigrants, they’ve been using the administrative state to make sure that conservative policies are faulted and they’ve been pushing their woke agenda through our schools, through our campuses, and even in our corporations,” she said.
Ms Truss also took aim at "Chinos" - conservatives in name only - saying: "It's people who think 'I want to be popular, I don't want to upset people, I don't want to look like a mean person, I want to attend nice dinner parties in London or Washington DC, I want my friends to like me, I don't want to cause trouble'.
"What those people are doing is they are compromising, and they are triangulating, and they are losing the argument."
Ms Truss also repeated arguments she has made previously, claiming an "administrative state" and left-wing interests had undermined her policies in Downing Street.
She said: "Conservatives are now operating in what is now a hostile environment and we essentially need a bigger bazooka."
Interviewed by former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon after her speech, Ms Truss said she was willing to work with Nigel Farage to change the Conservative Party.
She said: "I will work with whoever it takes to make our country successful, I will work with whoever.
"And Nigel, I've done an interview with him today, I would like him to become a member of the Conservative Party and help turn our country around."
She also suggested Mr Bannon, who is facing fraud charges in New York, could "come over to Britain and sort out Britain", to which he joked that he "may be banned in Britain".
In response to Ms Truss's speech, the Liberal Democrats renewed calls for her to be stripped of the £115,000 allowance given to former prime ministers to help run their private offices.
Party deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "This Conservative Party love-in for right-wing American politics is like watching a slow moving car crash.”
