Former Tory leader Liz Truss has warned her party “could effectively die” as she criticised Rishi Sunak’s leadership.
The ex-prime minister’s 90-minute Edinburgh Festival Fringe show saw her share her dislike for her predecessor and go up against audience members who called on her to “just apologise” over the effects of her government’s mini-budget.
During the All Talk With Iain Dale show, which was instead hosted by LBC’s Matthew Stadlen, Ms Truss told the audience that the Reform Party could replace the Tories as the party representing the “right”.
She said Reform leader Nigel Farage could have a place in the Tory party if her party recognised the need to break away from “consensus” politics.
Ms Truss told the audience: “I think if the Conservative Party wants to survive, and I think there is a real question about whether it does survive or whether or not Reform becomes the party of the right in Britain, it needs to advocate for genuine change and it needs to be prepared to say what we got wrong in the last 14 years not to deliver that change.
“I’m hearing too much from candidates saying, ‘we need unity’, or ‘we need to dampen things down’. I think that’s completely wrong – that’s not where the country is.”
The former prime minister said she had not decided who she would back in the leadership campaign, which is set to be decided in November, however, she said it was a “shame” former home secretary Suella Braverman had not entered the race.
Ms Truss replied with a blunt “yes” when asked whether the “Conservative Party could effectively die”.
I don’t share his politics and I think he was disingenuous during the leadership contest and, frankly, he said many things I don’t approve of while he was prime minister, including attacking my record
Liz Truss, former prime minister
The former party leader was also blunt when questioned on her relationship with Mr Sunak, replying “no” when asked if she “personally” got on with her successor.
She added: “I’m a pretty honest person, I don’t get on with him personally.
“I haven’t spoken to him since he entered Downing Street pretty much. I don’t share his politics and I think he was disingenuous during the leadership contest and, frankly, he said many things I don’t approve of while he was prime minister, including attacking my record.”
Ms Truss, who served as prime minister for just 49 days, entered the Pleasance stage to a mix of applause and boos, with a heckler interrupting the event to tell the former leader she should “just apologise” for the economic effects of her mini-budget, which saw interest rates increase and impacted mortgage rates.
She replied to the heckler, saying: “This is the kind of inane comment that I get from people who do not understand or care what is going on.
“There’s somebody in the audience who doesn’t even want to listen to my answer, who doesn’t want to understand what actually happened and all they care about is trading political insults and, frankly, that is why the country is in the mess we are in now because we’re not having a serious discussion about why the British economy is not succeeding.”
She told the audience she “did not accept” the link between her governance and the economic crisis, adding the Bank of England had accepted fault for “two-thirds” of the problem.
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