Liz Truss’s political party with Farage backing explained
Former prime minister Liz Truss is set to launch a new movement today dubbed Popular Conservatism – or PopCons – with other key right-wing figures.
The new group is seen as an attempt to rally together the right of the Conservative Party ahead of the general election due to be held later this year.
The Tory right has become increasingly vocal in recent months calling for a toughening of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda policy and tighter immigration rules.
Who is in Liz Truss’s Popular Conservatism group?
Speakers at the launch event in Westminster today include ex-Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson, who recently quit as deputy Tory chairman over the Rwanda Bill.
Nigel Farage, chairman of Reform UK, is not set to speak at the event but will reportedly be in attendance.
Mark Littlewood, the outgoing director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) who was put forward for a peerage in Ms Truss’s resignation honours list, is also backing the new venture.
Other supporters include Sir Jon Moynihan, who chaired Ms Truss’s leadership campaign and was also given a peerage in her honours list.
Two close Truss allies will not be supporting PopCon event, however, as former environment secretary Ranil Jayawardena announced shortly before the event that he was pulling out from speaking at the launch.
He told The Times that he will instead “keep making the positive case for growth from the common ground of British politics”.
Sir Simon Clarke, formerly levelling up secretary in Ms Truss’s short-lived administration, was due to speak but was dropped from the lineup after he publicly called for Rishi Sunak to quit as Prime Minister.
What does the Popular Conservatism group stand for?
The PopCons are reportedly seeking to pressure Mr Sunak to adopt hardline policies on immigration, as well as leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and bring in major tax cuts.
The new Tory pressure group will seek to mobilise thousands of grassroots activists in a bid to push Mr Sunak to adopt more free market policies ahead of the general election.
According to insiders the movement will “seek to harness the ideas and enthusiasm of thousands of party activists across the country” as part of efforts to demonstrate their popularity among voters.
Sir Jacob, one of the headline speakers in the launch, is set to speak out against the “activist judiciary” and an “out-of-touch oligarchy”.
“Popular conservatism is about restoring this balance and returning power to Parliament while taking it away from quangos and a judiciary that has become more political,” he will say.
Ahead of the launch, Mr Littlewood wrote in The Sunday Telegraph that “Conservative principles are popular in the country” but that this “only translates into electoral success when actual results are shown”.
He continued: “Labour proposes more state control, more tax and more debt. It is up to the Conservatives to make the case for economic freedom and lower taxes.”
Mr Littlewood said that PopCons aimed to educate MPs and candidates about “the need to reform Britain’s bureaucratic structures to allow Conservatives values to flourish” and “to advance these policies across the country, whilst demonstrating their popularity”.
Are Liz Truss’s policies popular?
New polling by Savanta showed that 65 per cent of voters have an unfavourable view of her, compared to just 11 per cent who have a favourable view.
Her net favourability rating is -54, much lower than Mr Sunak’s -27 and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s -8.
Ms Truss’s rating is also far lower than the -38 rating former prime minister Boris Johnson achieved the month that he resigned from No 10.
Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta, said: “Our research shows that many ideas associated with free market conservatism are popular with the UK public.
“One of their main advocates right now – Liz Truss – is not.
“It is ironic that Popular Conservatism couldn’t find a more unpopular spokesperson if they actively tried.”
