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.
The former Prime Minister argued the new Popular Conservatism movement must galvanise Britain’s many “secret” Conservatives.
Speaking at the launch rally of the new faction – dubbed the PopCons – in central London on Tuesday, Truss warned there was a “damaging divide” between politicians and ordinary people who “think the wokery that’s going on is nonsense”.
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.
The grouping aims to pile pressure on Sunak to cut taxes, to adopt hardline policies on immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
In her speech, Truss said ministers shied away from measures promoted by the PopCons as they “don’t want to be unpopular” and said: “The irony is that these policies are popular.”
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 years and years and years … Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists,” she said.
She hit out at the government for allowing people to choose their gender and for “pandering to 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” adding: “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, their school.”
Among those in the audience were former home secretary Priti Patel, ex-chief whip Wendy Morton, former Tory Party chair Sir Jake Berry, Tory peer Lord Frost and Nigel Farage.
Press Association – Sophie Wingate