Liz Truss speech: PM pledges to get country through ‘stormy days’

Liz Truss has promised to get the country through “stormy days”, as she set out her plans to grow the economy.

In her speech to the Tory conference, which has been marked by U-turns and internal division, the PM admitted her policies would cause “disruption”.

But she insisted “the status quo is not an option”, adding: “We must stay the course.”

The speech came against a backdrop of financial and political turmoil following the government’s mini-budget.

Markets reacted badly to the plans for £45bn in tax cuts funded by borrowing, while the government’s u-turn on its plan to remove the 45p tax band for the highest earners was fuelled by opposition from Tory MPs.

The prime minister’s speech lasted around 35 minutes – shorter than is usually the case for the party leader at conference – and was briefly interrupted by fracking protesters from Greenpeace, holding up a sign reading “who voted for this”.

She made no new policy announcements but pledged to stick to her promises to cut taxes and regulations on businesses.

Ms Truss acknowledged “these are stormy days”, citing the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

But she added: “I’m determined to get Britain moving, to get us through the tempest and to put us on a stronger footing as a nation.”

The prime minister argued cutting taxes was “the right thing to do morally and economically” as it allowed people to keep more of their own money so they are “inspired to do more of what they do best”.

However, in attempt to reassure the markets, she promised to “keep an iron grip on the nation’s finances”.

Highlighting her own background, Ms Truss said her upbringing in Paisley and Leeds in the 1980s and 1990s meant she knew what it was like “to live somewhere that isn’t feeling the benefits of economic growth”.

“I have fought to get where I am today,” she told the conference, highlighting how the barriers she has faced as a woman “made me angry and it made me determined”.

Echoing her predecessor Boris Johnson’s pledge when he became prime minister, she promised to “level up” the country “in a Conservative way, ensuring everyone everywhere can get on”.

She also vowed to take on the “anti-growth coalition” and “enemies of enterprise”, including opposition parties, “militant unions” and environmental campaigners – like the ones, she said, who heckled during her speech.

The Tory conference has been overshadowed by divisions, after the government made a dramatic U-turn over its plans to scrap the top rate of income tax.

Some cabinet ministers and senior Conservatives have also publicly spoken out against the suggestion increases to some benefits like universal credit could be linked to wages rather than prices, which would amount to a real-terms cut.