Liz Truss was met by sweeping queues at the Conservative conference as she called for ministers to “make Britain grow again” with a raft of tax cuts.
Nearly a year after she was forced out of office when she lost the support of Conservative MPs during her chaotic 49 days as prime minister, Ms Truss rallied the still supportive Tory membership at the fringes of the party conference in Manchester on Monday.
There were cheers from the hundreds who managed to make it into the grand room in the Midland Hotel when they were reminded she was elected by party activists, rather than Rishi Sunak who was victorious among MPs.
Ms Truss urged members to “unleash their inner conservative” after calling for corporation tax to be cut to 19% at least and to slash Government spending.
“Let’s stop taxing and banning things,” she told the packed room.
“Let’s instead build things and make things. Let’s be prepared to make conservative arguments again, even if it’s unpopular, even if it’s difficult. I want everybody in this room to unleash their inner conservative.
“And finally, my friends, let’s make Britain grow again.”
Ms Truss said 500,000 homes a year need to be built, suggesting environmental protections could be torn up to encourage building, and called for ministers to permit fracking.
She was joined at the “Great British Growth Rally” by allies and former cabinet colleagues Dame Priti Patel, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ranil Jayawardena.
Nigel Farage, the prominent Brexiteer, was also in the audience, making supportive comments about Ms Truss to journalists.
I want hormone injected beef from Australia
Sir Jacob continued the tax-cutting, deregulating motif, also calling for tariffs and checks to be slashed to boost trade.
“I want hormone injected beef from Australia,” he said as he called for cheaper food.
“I’ve eaten beef in Australia, it was absolutely delicious, there’s nothing wrong with it and they should be allowed to export it here because we want lower costs.”
