Truss takes aim at left-wing extremists

This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, announced that he plans to step down at the next election. But there is still at least one senior Trussite who plans to fight on. This lunchtime Liz Truss herself appeared at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster to launch her new outfit, PopCon, a grassroots group to generate new Tory policies.  

Addressing a packed room, the former prime minister criticised ‘left wing extremists’ as she took aim at Tory MPs pursuing policies that would make them popular at ‘London dinner parties’. Truss argued it was time for MPs and supporters more generally to find ‘resilience and bravery’ to start making conservative arguments: ‘I believe the fundamental issue is that for years, and years and years… Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists.’

The new group – full name ‘popular conservatism’ – is meant to serve as a place for the Tories to have policy debates and to push for the party to embrace freedom and economic liberalism, along with a socially conservative agenda.