A year after Liz Truss’s first Tory conference as leader collapsed over her ill-fated tax cuts, she’s back in front of the party faithful to ring in the giveaway of drums. “Cut taxes,” she told Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Truss came under attack from the cabinet last October as he struggled to contain the fallout from the disastrous mini-budget. On Monday she was the darling of backbenchers on the Tory right.
Her intervention on tax came 90 minutes before Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt was to deliver a keynote speech, directly challenging his view that the Treasury must now prioritize fighting inflation over tax cuts.
The return of the disgraced former leader points to growing dissent from the Tory right against the government as Sunak seeks to unify the party ahead of next year’s general election.
Hundreds of campaigners packed into an overheated hotel ballroom for the Great Britain Growth Rally to hear luminaries from the Tory right including Dame Priti Patel and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg Character’s speech.
An hour before the event started, queues started forming outside the bar, waiting to get in. Nigel Farage, a well-known Brexiteer and former leader of the UK Independence Party, was also among the attendees.
The din of crowded fringe events contrasted with the quiet atmosphere and rows of empty seats in the main auditorium as many cabinet members gave speeches on Sunday and Monday.
Amid the mockery of Sunak, Rally for Growth activists were reminded that Truss had been elected leader by party members. The current prime minister was crowned by MPs in a quick campaign that bypassed grassroots voting.
Activists have also heard that the number of Conservative MPs in the right-wing Growth Group established by Truss to push for tax cuts and deregulation has grown to 60, the same number as the government’s working majority.
This suggests the group could threaten to defeat the government in any upcoming legislative dispute if it acts as a group, thereby reducing Sunak’s ability to maneuver.
The development is likely to give Downing Street pause for thought as it sets out its legislative program for the next parliament, which will be announced in the King’s Speech on 7 November.
On Monday, Truss urged Sunak to reduce the size of the state and scrap planning rules to boost development, while her autumn statement in November mainly called for the government to cut corporation tax to 19%.
Meanwhile, Rees-Mogg called for inheritance tax to be scrapped, denouncing the “horrible death tax” while talking up the idea of a flat income tax rate, a proposal he admitted was “too radical even for Liz Truss”. in office.
The former business secretary suggested that tariffs and inspections on food imports should also be scrapped. He called for cheaper food, saying: “I want hormone-injected beef from Australia. I’ve had beef in Australia and it was absolutely delicious.”
Patel, the former home secretary and long-time favorite among the Tory grassroots, made a series of veiled criticisms of Sunak.
“We can’t be timid anymore, we can’t be risk-averse, we can’t accept the status quo,” she said, adding: “Politicians in this country just accept big government, and we can’t have that.”
The New Conservatives, a group of right-wing Conservative MPs elected in 2019 who seek to forge their own identity, later held a coordinated rally.
They announced their demands for tax cuts, calling for the VAT threshold to be raised from £85,000 to £250,000 on business turnover, while advocating for a ban on the incorporation of “gender ideology” into schools and a reduction in legal immigration.
Tom Hunt, one of the group’s members calling for a public vote on immigration quotas, told the event: “When you walk into the city center it sometimes feels like you’re living in a foreign country. I don’t think that makes you a xenophobe. By.”
Centrist MPs in the One Nation caucus have been at pains to emphasize their influence on the party in a bid to counterbalance the influence of the right. The group’s chairman, Damian Green, told The House magazine that the group has 80 members, more than the growth group has.
Fellow centrist Matt Warman will also use a platform at a fringe event on Monday to tell activists: “When we win elections, it’s from the center.”
Many councilors described the overall atmosphere of the meeting as “bland”. One person reflected: “We are all on the doorstep and things are very difficult – across the country. That’s why the atmosphere is not lively.”
The energy at the Truss rally was palpable.
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