LONDON – Prime Minister Liz Truss on Wednesday sought to shore up her authority after a brutal first month in office, saying that while not everyone is in favor of the changes her new government is pushing, “everyone will benefit from the result: a growing economy and a better future.”
But just moments into her keynote speech at the Conservative Party’s annual conference, she was interrupted by Greenpeace protesters carrying a banner reading: “Who voted for this?” They were quickly removed from the room.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss was heckled by two protesters holding a Greenpeace banner during her speech in Birmingham, England, on October 5. (Video: Reuters)
The Conservative Party conference, with a new prime minister, was a moment the party hoped would mark a fresh start after the many scandals of its predecessor, Boris Johnson. Instead, Truss had to defend the first weeks of her tenure as prime minister, already marked by historic economic volatility, a revolt within her party and voters turning away from the Conservatives en masse.
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“I’m ready to make the tough decisions,” he said. He warned of “stormy days” ahead but insisted Britain must “do things differently” and that “wherever there is change, there is disruption”.
“I am determined to take a new approach and get us out of this cycle of high taxes and low growth,” she told the party faithful gathered in Birmingham, England.
Referring to the protesters later in his speech, he spoke disparagingly of an “anti-growth coalition” made up of a wide swath of people in the country, including opposition politicians, “militant unions, vested interests disguised as think tanks, talking heads, Brexit naysayers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the room earlier.”
“The fact is that they prefer to protest than to do. They’d rather talk on Twitter than make tough decisions,” he said. “They take taxis from terraced houses in north London to the BBC studio to fire anyone who challenges the status quo. From streaming to podcasting, the same old answers come up. It’s always more taxes, more regulation and more meddling. Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Truss came into office with a lot to prove. Although she had a somewhat prominent role as foreign secretary during the Ukraine war, she was not as well known to the British public as Johnson, a former London mayor and newspaper columnist, had been before he took the helm .
Truss was propelled not by a general election, but by a leadership contest within her party. Even then, he was not the first choice of Conservative Party lawmakers, and some of the grassroots party members who rallied around him have admitted they already miss Johnson.
Any momentum Truss had as incoming prime minister was cut short after two days by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The new prime minister joined the new king on the UK’s four-nation tour, but she played a marginal role.
When attention finally turned to politics, things took a dramatic turn for the worse. His government’s plan to grow the economy through tax cuts aimed mainly at the wealthy, which will be financed by billions in loans, sent investors scrambling to dump British assets. The pound fell to a record low against the dollar. The Bank of England had to intervene to quell a revolt in the financial markets.
The pound is recovering after the UK government reversed some of the fiscal policy that sent it crashing
Only after 10 days of economic turmoil and under intense pressure from his party did Truss reverse course, announcing on Monday that he would drop the most controversial element of his economic plan: a proposal to scrap the top rate of corporate tax income
The pound has since recovered. But divisions within the Conservative Party remain, as this week’s conference proceedings made clear. The Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, on Tuesday criticized those within the party who “staged a coup” that “undermined the authority of our prime minister in an unprofessional way”.
Meanwhile, public opinion of the Conservative Party has plummeted, falling 20 to 30 points in the past two weeks.
“This is the most dramatic polling shift in my lifetime,” said Chris Curtis, head of political polling at Opinium Research.
The Conservatives have “lost the perception of being the financially competent party – it’s as simple as that”, Mr Curtis said.
A poll published on Tuesday night showed the opposition Labor Party leading the Conservatives by 38 points in the “red wall” areas of northern England, which trailed the Conservatives in the 2019 election.
If an election were held today, pollsters say the Labor Party would win its majority.
“What this change in the polls shows is that the British electorate is becoming more volatile. It is becoming more and more aligned with party affiliation. Voters will switch from one party to another,” said Will Jennings , Professor of Political Science at the University of Southampton.
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Politics in Great Britain is much less polarized than in the United States. This is partly due to Brexit, which saw many people move away from parties they had supported for decades and instead see themselves as ‘leavers’ or ‘remainers’ – labels that cut across party lines . Now that Brexit is a done deal, voters are open to being swayed by other concerns.
This volatility means the pendulum could swing back and forth several times before the next election, which could be as far away as January 2025, so neither the Conservative Party nor Truss are in immediate danger.
Still, the Conservatives are notorious for mercilessly dumping leaders who no longer seem like vote-winners. Johnson was ousted midway through his term, after a series of scandals, although he led his party to a huge majority in 2019.
If the Tories think Truss will drag them down, he could find himself out of the house just like Johnson.
“She is in a vulnerable and delicate situation,” Jennings said. “If the Conservatives remain at current levels in the polls, [members of Parliament] he will be very worried. One should never brag too much about the political future, but it is true that it is in a difficult spot. Regaining the support of their MPs and voters will be a big challenge.”