Liz Truss to warn change brings disruption in Tory conference speech as Cleverly admits mini-budget was ‘bitter medicine’ – live

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And here are some more lines from James Cleverly‘s morning interview round.

Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said it was the obsessive media focus on the ab abolition of the 45% top rate of tax in the mini-budget that led to the government abandoning it, in a huge U-turn. He told Sky News:

What you’re describing as a U-turn is the smallest element of a really big and significant support package to families, tax cut to families, stimulus package for the British economy.

You guys were constantly talking about the 45p tax rate, which is why we had to take it away, so that us guys could talk about the 95% of that package which was about cutting tax for working families, support for people trying to pay their energy bills, giving growth zones around the country, infrastructure investment for transport which unlocks the growth in the economy – that’s what we wanted to talk about and that’s what we will talk about.

Cleverly is ignoring the fact that the media were focusing on the 45% tax rate decision because Tory MPs, and the country at large, were outraged about it.

He predicted that the Tories would recover their standing in the polls. He told Times Radio:

This is a blip. It’s a necessary blip, but I’m absolutely confident when people see that growth, when they see their wages increase, when they see productivity increases, when they see the new rail, roads, when they feel those tax cuts, those voters will start coming back to us.

He refused to endorse what Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said yesterday about Tory MPs opposed to the 45% top rate of tax decision being engaged in a coup. He said Braverman “chose the words that she chose”, and he did not endorse them himself.

He said people should not be surprised by what Truss was doing because she set out her agenda very clearly during the Tory leadership contest. He said:

The prime minister made it really clear what her philosophy was when she was running for the leadership. If people weren’t listening properly, I mean that’s more their problem than hers. She said that she was going to go for growth. She said she wanted to increase investment.

And here are two more extracts from Liz Truss‘s speech briefed to the media in advance. The PM will explain why she is focusing on growth (using an argument she has used many times before) and she will say there cannot be any more “drift and delay”.

For too long, our economy has not grown as strongly as it should have done. For too long, the political debate has been dominated by how we distribute a limited economic pie. Instead, we need to grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice. That is why I am determined to take a new approach and break us out of this high-tax, low-growth cycle. That is what our plan is about: getting our economy growing and rebuilding Britain through reform …

This is a great country. But I know that we can do better and we must do better. We have huge talent across the country. We’re not making enough of it. To deliver this, we need to get Britain moving. We cannot have any more drift and delay at this vital time.

This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar on the “whenever there is change, there is disruption” line in Liz Truss’s speech.

And this is from the Economist’s Anne McElvoy making a similar point.

Good morning. Later this morning Liz Truss will deliver her keynote speech winding up what has been one of the most chaotic and dysfunctional party conferences organised by any major political party for years. The only one I can remember that was remotely similar was the Tory one in Blackpool in 2003, which saw the beleagured Iain Duncan Smith receive 19 standing ovations during his “the quiet man is turning up the volume” speech. A few weeks later, Conservative MPs decided to turn down the volume on Duncan Smith for good when they voted him out. Duncan Smith was the first Conservative leader elected by a ballot of party members. MPs concluded the members had just got the decision wrong, and many may be feeling the same way about Truss, the fourth Tory leader chosen by a leadership ballot.

In extracts from her speech released overnight, Truss will restate her determination to change Britain, while admitting that change will bring “disruption”. She will say:

The scale of the challenge is immense. War in Europe for the first time in a generation. A more uncertain world in the aftermath of Covid. And a global economic crisis. That is why in Britain we need to do things differently. Whenever there is change, there is disruption. Not everyone will be in favour. But everyone will benefit from the result – a growing economy and a better future. That is what we have a clear plan to deliver.

The problem with this argument is that, by and large, people aren’t that fond of disruption. Britain in many respects is inherently conservative (one reason why it has often voted Conservative). The mini-budget was disruptive, but that contributed to mortgage products being withdrawn, and interest rates going up – triggering a fierce backlash against the Tories in the polls.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, has been on the interview round this morning, and he acknowledged this when he told Times Radio the mini-budget had included “bitter-tasting medicine”. He said:

Now the simple truth is, a number of people aren’t used to hearing about the stimulating effects of tax cuts about the growth effects of reducing regulation. And quite understandably, they are reacting to that. People don’t necessarily like bitter-tasting medicine, but it will make us all collectively economically feel better. And when they do start feeling better, I have no doubt at all, that will be reflected in the polls.

Truss is due to deliver her speech in Birmingham at around 11am. Before she takes the stage, Jake Berry, the party chair, and Nadhim Zahawi, the Cabinet Office minister, are due to speak.

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