Prime Minister Liz Truss delivered her first speech to Conservative Party Conference as Prime Minister to close the conference earlier today. The speech came at the end of what has been a chaotic conference for the Conservative Party.
In the speech she reiterated that โthe status quo is not an optionโ, insisting that โwe must stay the courseโ with the policies outlined in the recent mini-budget, despite the financial and political turmoil that resulted from the announcements.
The speech was perhaps most notable in the fact that it made no new policy commitments. Instead, Truss chose to restate her commitment to โgrowth, growth and growthโ and continued to minimise the 45p tax rate cut as a small part of the wider budget, while stressing the importance of the Governmentโs cap on energy prices.
The speech was briefly interrupted by protestors from Greenpeace, who held up a sign that read โwho voted for thisโ in response to the government recently recommitting to fracking.
Trussonomics Restated
The consistent message from the government regarding the U-turn on the 45p tax rate cut is that it was the right policy at the wrong time. Both Truss and Kwarteng have since insisted that removing the top rate is still something that they would like to do, but that it would not be sensible to pursue now given โpolitical constraints.โ
That message was no different today. Repeating the โI get it, I have listenedโ mantra regarding the U-turn, the Prime Minister insisted that she was in โlock-stepโ with her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.
Her speech provided an opportunity to restate her vision for growth, while seeking to reassure the markets as she assured the conference that she is committed to โsound moneyโ and to bring down debt as a proportion of national income.
Amidst all of this, the Prime Minister continued to try to paint Britainโs problems as ones being faced across the whole world, referencing interest rate hikes in the US as well as the Ukraine war and the aftermath of the pandemic. Such arguments however, could not be reasonably applied to the disappearing act that have plagued mortgage markets with 1000s of mortgage products disappearing from the market.
The Enemies List
As much as her speech outlined exactly what Truss stood for โ a country focused relentlessly on economic growth (almost no matter the cost), it also did a good job of outlining exactly what, or more appropriately, who, she was against. In an odd, Nixonian off-shoot she revealed her list of political enemies, that she dubbed the โanti-growth coalitionโ. The list included:
- Labour
- The Liberal Democrats
- SNP
- Unions
- โVested interests dressed up as think tanksโ
- Talking heads
- โBrexit deniersโ
- Extinction Rebellion
On these groups, she said: โThe anti-growth coalition just doesnโt get it, because they donโt face the same challenges as normal working people.โ
Final Thought
The bar for Liz Trussโs speech was to avoid making anything worse. It is a low bar indeed, but it is one that she managed to clear. By the very low standards of the conference, that she didnโt sew any more internal discord must be counted as a big win.
There were perhaps even some actively positive takeaways from her speech. There are rumblings from senior Labour party officials that they are very worried about the potential strength of the โanti-growth coalitionโ framing if the Conservative Party manages to get its act together.
However, amidst all of this she remains massively wounded. Trussโ strength is in the perception of her as a โdo-erโ who will โget Britain movingโ. But if she cannot โdoโ because her MPs (and some members of her cabinet) arenโt backing her, then what is she good for?