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Truss warns of ‘left-wing extremists’ as she urges ‘secret Tories’ to galvanise

06 Feb 2024 4 minute read
Former prime minister Liz Truss during the launch of the Popular Conservatism movement at the Emmanuel Centre in central London. Photo Victoria Jones/PA Wire

Liz Truss has hit out at Rishi Sunak’s Government for failing to take on “left-wing extremists” she said had gained control of UK institutions, as she argued the new Popular Conservatism movement must galvanise Britain’s many “secret” Conservatives.

The former prime minister warned there was a “damaging divide” between politicians and ordinary people who “think the wokery that’s going on is nonsense”.

She was speaking at the launch rally of the new faction – dubbed the PopCons in Westminster – in central London on Tuesday.

The event also featured former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who declared that the “age of Davos man is over”, and ex-Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson, who used his speech to argue that Britons did not care about the net-zero emissions strategy.

Tax cuts

The grouping aims to pile pressure on the Prime Minister to cut taxes, to adopt hardline policies on immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

In her headline address, Ms Truss said ministers shied away from measures promoted by the PopCons because they “don’t want to be unpopular”.

“The irony is that these policies are popular,” she said.

People wanted to see lower immigration and wanted illegal immigrants deported, she said, but ministers’ efforts were “constantly being stymied”.

“I believe the fundamental issue is that for year and years and years … Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists,” she said.

Ms Truss said the ideology of leftists disguising themselves as environmentalists was about “taking power away from families and giving it to the state and unelected bodies”.

‘Wokery’

She hit out at the Government for allowing people to choose their gender and for “pandering to the anti-capitalists”, while ordinary people believed “the wokery that is going on is nonsense”.

The short-lived former premier said the movement’s aims included “galvanising Conservative forces”.

“Britain is full of secret Conservatives – people who agree with us but don’t want to admit it because they think it’s not acceptable in their place of work, it’s not acceptable at their school,” she said.

Among those in the audience were former home secretary Priti Patel, ex-chief whip Wendy Morton, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Tory peer Lord Frost and Nigel Farage.

The PopCons’ leader Mark Littlewood said it “isn’t about the leadership of the Conservative Party” or seeking to “replicate or replace” any of the existing right-wing caucuses of Tory MPs, but tackling quangos and bureaucrats who “share the same sort of leftist groupthink” and are “sneering about ordinary people’s beliefs”.

Economic chaos

Mr Littlewood earlier said the Tories can draw “important lessons” from Ms Truss’s brief stint in No 10.

She was forced to quit as prime minister after just 44 days during which her botched financial statement unleashed economic chaos.

Mr Littlewood, the outgoing head of the libertarian think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the PopCons want to influence the Tory manifesto at the general election.

But Mr Farage told the PA news agency: “I would agree with a lot of what is said on the platform this morning, but none of it is going to be Conservative manifesto policy.”

The arch-Brexiteer and Reform UK founder said the group represents “a very small minority within the parliamentary Conservative Party”, which is now “so far away from the centre of gravity of most Conservative voters, it is almost untrue”.

Mr Farage quashed speculation that he is seeking to join the Tory Party “at the moment, given what they stand for”.

“I’d rather be part of Reform, because that’s the real thing.”

In his headline speech, Sir Jacob said: “The age of Davos man is over, of international cabals and quangos telling hundreds of millions of people how to lead their lives.”

He railed against the World Health Organisation, European Union and Cop climate summit, which he said “limit our freedom for manoeuvre”.

“We have to restore power to our democratic institutions and take it away from those that seek to override democracy,” Sir Jacob told the event.

Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “This is not popular Conservatism, it’s economic vandalism. Liz Truss and her fellow Conservative MPs crashed the economy, sent mortgages spiralling, then pocketed thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded handouts. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

“The public will never forgive this chaotic Conservative Party for the damage they’ve done to people’s livelihoods and our country. The sooner we kick this Conservative Government out of office, the better.”


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the original mark
the original mark
8 months ago

The only extremists we need to worry about are the idiot tories who think Truss is the answer.

Rhddwen y Sais
Rhddwen y Sais
8 months ago

No no no Jezza and Mark Diane Emily Nia et Al were extremists that Boris blew out of the water.

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
8 months ago

A ‘left wing extremist’ to Truss is anyone who is to the left of centre right.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
8 months ago

Secret Tories! Anthrax Island; the story behind ‘The Prisoner’ should be the ‘safe space’ for Truss and Co…

Shut that building, it is half full of alien life forms who would be the death of us…

Annibendod
Annibendod
8 months ago

Lizz Truss calling people extremists !?! I nearly wet myself laughing. Well Liz, you are an incompetent libertarian extremist.

Marc
Marc
8 months ago

Ah it’s the ‘Leftists’ who are “ taking power away from families and giving it to the state and unelected bodies” has forgotten the 11 nominations for the unelected House of Lords, in her resignation honours list?

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
8 months ago

Idiocrat Liz Truss’s Liberal Democrat parents must be choking on their nut cutlets at their daughter’s narrowminded ideology. Anyone worried should be her. Me thinks men in white coats are on their way. She fruiter than a Christmas pud. 🤪☝️🇬🇧

CapM
CapM
8 months ago

What’s Popcorn’s position on pork and cheese?

Marc
Marc
8 months ago
Reply to  CapM

She was hoping to open new pork markets in Israel

Jeff
Jeff
8 months ago

Far right loons now inhabit the party. You choose this ideology then you are on the path a certain nation took in the 1930’s.

Oh yeah, ex IEA as well. Where is the money coming from.

Last edited 8 months ago by Jeff
Gareth
Gareth
8 months ago

Absolutely barking mad ramblings of a far right neo nazi. She complains the gov have allowed people to choose their gender, is that not allowed in a democracy these days, personal choice? She complains the left have taken over institutions, while they have taken control of the BBC, to use as a propogand mouthpiece, while overloading the HOL with people like Michelle Mone, and Charlotte Owen, a lady who worked for 6 months as an intern for Boris Johnson. They control the press, who are major Tory donors, and she wiped billions from the economy in hours, whilst playing at… Read more »

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
8 months ago

Who is the leader of the monster raving loony party? What about UKIP, how many know it’s leader? These people are obscure, why ? They aren’t given the publicity and are pretty much ignored. If we are to stop idiots gaining traction amongst the population (and causing us harm, the benefits of Brexit anyone?), we have to ignore them, let them fester out at the fringes.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
8 months ago
Reply to  Steve Duggan

It was Screaming Lord Sutch, Third Earl of Harrow and a musician, whatever you do don’t sully his name, please…and I’m the 7th Earl of Meirionnydd…

Last edited 8 months ago by Mab Meirion
Dai Ponty
Dai Ponty
8 months ago

Loony Liz Truss who should be put in a straight Jacket and put in a padded cell calling Left wing extremism says a Far Right extremist

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
8 months ago

I wonder what the ‘ministerial code’ says under Barking Mad…

Penny Mordant says that MPs want to raise the ten day rule for recall so they can carry on breaking the rules for longer…

Paul ap Gareth
Paul ap Gareth
8 months ago

Tories have been quietly packing public institutions with cronies. and blocking people they deem to be the opposition from appointments (i.e. trying to block Dame Mary Beard from the board of British Museum for being anti-Brexit – see second link).
Truss is lying.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/…/conservative-party-nudge…
https://news.sky.com/…/number-10-blocked-mary-beard…

Alwyn
Alwyn
8 months ago

She really is nuts

Rob
Rob
8 months ago

Sounds like something out of 1950s McCarthyism. If you don’t share our views then you must be a Communist.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
8 months ago

She reminds me of our sheepdog, he’s lovely but not the full shilling, a shadow chaser with his eyes focused on God knows what (if you have a clue any farmers out there) but she appears to be hallucinating as do he, bless him…

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