It says something about the standing of the current Tory leadership that, away from the party’s half-empty conference hall, some 250 Conservatives packed into a room to attend the ‘Great British Growth Rally’. Headlined by Liz Truss, the former PM was joined on stage by three former cabinet members: Ranil Jayawardena, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Priti Patel.
The reception was a marked contrast with the gloom that many activists in Manchester say they are currently feeling. Jeremy Hunt’s speech later this afternoon is unlikely to garner similar cheers.
The ‘fab four’ delivered speeches along familiar themes: the state is too big, Brits are too taxed
The ‘fab four’ delivered speeches along familiar themes: the state is too big, Brits are too taxed, there’s too much borrowing and growth is too low. Rather than dwell on the events of a year ago – when the mini-Budget derailed this very event – all four preferred to discuss policy in broad terms. Truss advocated a trio of measures to advance her agenda: end the ban on shale gas, take corporation tax back down to 19 per cent and build more homes. ‘Some people have been claiming that we live in some kind of free market paradise in Britain’, claimed the former leader ‘but government spending as a percentage of GDP is now at 46 per cent.’ Her successor Rishi Sunak featured little in the rhetoric, though Rees-Mogg and Truss both praised his net zero announcement and urged him to go further.
There was a warm burst of applause when host Liam Halligan pointed out that Truss was elected by Tory activists, unlike her successor. A further 200-odd members were turned away outside the door. Several remarked bitterly that it ought to have been held in the main conference hall instead of Mark Harper’s transport address. One of those who did make it inside was Nigel Farage, who’s been permitted entry to a Tory conference for the first time since the 1980s. Halligan also revealed to the room that 60 MPs have now signed up to Jayawardena’s Conservative Growth Group – about the same size, as he tantalisingly put it, as the government’s majority in the House of Commons.
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