Liz Truss will come to regret her ‘bonfire’ of workers’ rights

Liz Truss is right about sex and gender. But if she is to get the country through the next winter she needs to think again about her ‘bonfire’ of workers’ rights.

‘I’m a plain talking Yorkshire woman,’ Truss said at a hustings in Cardiff, before announcing, ‘I know that a woman is a woman.’ Circular reasoning perhaps, but the audience knew exactly what she meant. There was not only applause, but a sense of relief, even laughter. She took a poke at certain sectors of society – ‘parts of Whitehall’ and ‘parts of the public sector’ – who didn’t seem to get it before making her point:

‘I will make sure that single sex spaces like domestic violence shelters are protected’.

Cue more applause. While polls suggest that the Tory party electorate is already sewn up, it’s also a message that will be understood by plain talking people everywhere.