By Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) – Taking aim at the judiciary, quangos, climate activists, bureaucrats and internationalists, a group of right-wing Conservatives offered a solution to their ailing governing party on Tuesday before an election – become more conservative.
Unveiling a new movement called Popular Conservatism, former prime minister Liz Truss, ex-business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and others said it was time to listen to voters and break what they described as a left-wing stranglehold in public life.
After almost 14 years in power and with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives badly lagging the opposition Labour Party in the polls, the party is now home to a struggle over how to shape its future, with lawmakers expecting an all but electoral wipe-out at the election later this year.
With more than 50 Conservative lawmakers saying they will step down, the fight for which of the governing party’s many factions will emerge as a dominant force is stepping up.
Bringing together right-leaning lawmakers, the group Popular Conservatism says it is about being confident in traditional conservative values on issues such as immigration, climate change and state regulation.
“The fundamental issue is that for years and years and years … Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists,” Truss told an audience packed into a room of a venue in the heart of Westminster.
“And the problem is when we don’t know what we stand for, when we’re not prepared to stand up for conservative values, who is?” asked Truss, who survived as prime minister for less than two months after overseeing a meltdown in financial markets.
She blamed colleagues for trying to be “popular at London dinner parties” rather than sticking with what she said were Conservative policies such as ending legal and illegal migration, challenging “wokeism” and climate narratives.
Her words were met by applause in the room, but the formation of yet another group will do little to help Sunak’s attempts to rally his party before the election.
He has repeatedly appealed to his party to “unite or die”, a call some have rejected. A Truss ally, Simon Clarke, broke cover last month and called on Sunak to quit.
But the director of Popular Conservatism, Mark Littlewood, a former head of a libertarian think tank, said the group had not been formed to influence the leadership of the party, saying he wanted Sunak to lead it into the election.
Admitting that some would ask “what is he thinking?” about starting a group with popular and Conservative in its title, he said: “I think it is a both a vital and ideal time to kickstart this initiative.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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