Liz Truss was heckled by climate change activists today as she made her first speech as Prime Minister to the Conservative party conference.
The Tory leader was on her feet for barely five minutes before two women waving a Greenpeace banner stood up in the conference hall and started shouting in her direction.
Their flag was printed with "who voted for this?' - a reference to the fact Truss has not won an election and was only selected in a party leadership contest.
The duo were quickly ushered out by security personnel and were booed by party members. Truss said "let’s get them removed” as protesters disrupted her conference speech.
The protestors who disrupted Truss’s speech later said they were "confident" it would not undermine their cause with Tory voters.
Rebecca Newsom told reporters: "The protest was very much about the U-turn on the fracking moratorium that is a complete joke and the public doesn’t want that to happen and it makes absolutely no sense on climate terms either.
"You saw yourself in the video before Liz Truss walked on there was a big focus on new oil and gas in the North Sea.
"That’s not going to cut bills, that’s not going to give us energy security and it’s rubbish for the climate so absolutely we are concerned about that as well."
Fellow protestor Ami McCarthy said they would "keep doing it".
She continued: "With policies like the ones she’s suggesting, a focus on fracking, a focus on North Sea oil and gas, it’s absolutely not the right direction."
Truss went on to claim she would level up the country in a "Conservative way" - citing her experience of low growth while growing up in Paisley.
She said: "For too long, our economy hasn’t grown as strongly as it should have done. I know what it’s like to live somewhere that isn’t feeling the benefits of economic growth. I grew up in Paisley and in Leeds in the ’80s and ’90s.
"I’ve seen the boarded-up shops. I’ve seen people left with no hope turning to drugs. I have seen families struggling to put food on the table.
"Low growth isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. Low growth means lower wages, fewer opportunities and less money to spend on the things that make life better."
