{"id":26268,"date":"2022-10-06T00:40:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T00:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=26268"},"modified":"2022-10-06T00:40:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T00:40:36","slug":"liz-truss-promises-growth-growth-and-growth-in-protest-hit-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/10\/06\/liz-truss-promises-growth-growth-and-growth-in-protest-hit-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Truss promises \u2018growth, growth and growth\u2019 in protest-hit speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Liz Truss has promised Britons she has \u201cgot your back\u201d and set out a plan for \u201cgrowth, growth and growth\u201d in a conference speech disrupted by protesters asking who voted for her plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a fractious party conference and dire opinion polls for the Tories, the prime minister attempted to speak directly to the public, saying: \u201cI want what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She made the case for cutting taxes as \u201cthe right thing to do morally and economically\u201d, despite having just U-turned over her decision to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax. On the decision to withdraw the policy, she said: \u201cI get it and I have listened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a few minutes in, her speech was disrupted by protesters waving a Greenpeace banner, which said: \u201cWho voted for this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they were escorted from the hall to boos from the audience, Truss said: \u201cLet\u2019s get them removed,\u201d and joked: \u201cLater on in my speech I\u2019m going to talk about the anti-growth coalition. I think they arrived in the hall a bit too early.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Protesters disrupt the prime minister\u2019s keynote speech. Photograph: Leon Neal\/Getty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truss made her dash for economic growth the centrepiece of her speech in Birmingham, saying not everyone would like her disruptive plan to change Britain but claiming that the UK would benefit from the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scale of the challenge is immense. War in Europe for the first time in a generation. A more uncertain world in the aftermath of Covid. And a global economic crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is why in Britain we need to do things differently. Whenever there is change, there is disruption. Not everyone will be in favour. But everyone will benefit from the result \u2013 a growing economy and a better future. That is what we have a clear plan to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the pound fell against the US dollar after the speech. Sterling had initially hit a three-week high against the dollar in early session trading, but soon slipped back amid fears over the government\u2019s credibility and fell a further 1%, to $1.136 at the end of the speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truss has repeatedly refused to say whether she will raise benefits in line with inflation, triggering a cabinet split as the leader of the Commons, Penny Mordaunt, and the Welsh secretary, Robert Buckland, suggested this should happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in her speech, Truss said she would exert an \u201ciron discipline\u201d over public spending, hinting at possible austerity to come. \u201cI believe in sound money and a lean state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Greenpeace<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she also referred to her own career, saying people had underestimated her. \u201cI stand here today as the first prime minister of our country to have gone to a comprehensive school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Truss\u2019s claim was challenged, as Gordon Brown and Theresa May attended selective secondary schools that turned into comprehensives, while Ramsay MacDonald and Jim Callaghan went to non-selective schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truss also said she was committed to spreading economic growth throughout the UK, after growing up in Paisley and Leeds in the 1980s and 1990s. She said: \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to live somewhere that isn\u2019t feeling the benefits of economic growth. I\u2019ve seen boarded-up shops and seen people left with no hope turning to drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truss also spoke about people she thought were part of the \u201canti-growth coalition\u201d and attacked political opponents who lived in \u201cnorth London townhouses\u201d and got taxied to the BBC studios to express their views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She listed \u201cLabour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the hall earlier\u201d as those who she thought were working against the interests of growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liz Truss has promised Britons she has \u201cgot your back\u201d and set out a plan for \u201cgrowth, growth and growth\u201d in a conference speech disrupted by protesters asking who voted for her plan. After a fractious party conference and dire opinion polls for the Tories, the prime minister attempted to speak directly to the public, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2735,6370,75,5307,3782,7960,5222,8440,13076,5195,6144,5196,6621,3577,7245,2264,6543,7998,6546,1828,8382,4624,5840,3684,10748,5612,8301,7964,7446,3174,5561,11171,10722,13301,6736,8810,3240,10041,6965,1502,6206,1568,4890,13307,12605,3080,6348,5251,3954,36,594],"class_list":["post-26268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-bbc","tag-birmingham","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-cabinet","tag-case","tag-covid","tag-crisis","tag-discipline","tag-dollar","tag-drugs","tag-economy","tag-europe","tag-future","tag-gordon-brown","tag-government","tag-growth","tag-income-tax","tag-inflation","tag-labour","tag-leeds","tag-lib-dems","tag-liz-truss","tag-london","tag-militant","tag-money","tag-mordaunt","tag-north","tag-penny-mordaunt","tag-prime-minister","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-removed","tag-results","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-snp","tag-speech","tag-split","tag-tax","tag-taxes","tag-theresa-may","tag-tories","tag-trading","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us","tag-war","tag-will","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}