Disruption is the price of success, PM insists

My reforms may not be popular but they will end the drift and delay, Liz Truss to say

LIZ TRUSS will today warn that there will be further disruption as she fights to deliver economic growth.

After a turbulent week, the Prime Minister will acknowledge that not everyone will be in favour of her reforms, but she will insist that an end to “drift and delay” is necessary to protect jobs and public services.

After facing days of opposition to her tax-cutting agenda, she will launch an attack on what she will call the “antigrowth coalition”, arguing that her “new approach” will “unleash the full potential of our great country”.

In her first Tory conference speech as party leader, she will say: “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.”

After talking about her experiences growing up in Leeds and Paisley, Ms Truss will add: “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.”

Ms Truss’s much-anticipated address will conclude a chaotic conference, during which she has been forced to make a high-profile about-turn on scrapping the 45p tax rate.

She has also faced open rebellion from two Cabinet colleagues, who came out publicly against the suggestion that benefits could be linked to the rise in earnings rather than inflation.

Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the Commons, used an interview to say it “makes sense” for Universal Credit to continue to be linked to inflation.

Last night Grant Shapps, who has become one of the main rebels, raised the prospect of Tory MPS removing Ms Truss if her prospects do not improve.

The former transport secretary told Times Radio that Conservatives will not “sit on their hands” should “the polls continue as they are”.

“I want Liz to succeed, so I’m hoping that she can turn us around,” he said. “I

‘Whenever there is change, there is disruption. Not everyone will be in favour. But everyone will benefit’

think there is a window of opportunity for her to do it.

“I’m cheering her on, if you like, to succeed. In the end I don’t think Members of Parliament, Conservatives, if they see the polls continue as they are, are going to sit on their hands. A way would be found to make that change.”

In an earlier interview he suggested that she had 10 days to reverse some of her problems.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Tory party leaders are planning to enforce “brutal” party discipline when MPS return to Parliament next week to shore up Ms Truss’s position.

Some Cabinet ministers have become exasperated by the open rebellion seen at the party conference in Birmingham, with one branding Michael Gove a “snake in the grass” over his public attacks.

Figures involved in party discipline are determined to remove the whip from any Tory MP who votes against Ms

Truss’s finance measures, meaning they will not sit as Conservatives.

The hardline tactic is a deliberate echo of Boris Johnson’s decision to strip MPS who voted against Brexit deals of the whip, stabilising his leadership after taking over in the summer of 2019.

Tory MPS speculating about a potential change in leader are being told by Cabinet ministers that they would risk triggering an immediate election if they moved against Ms Truss.

One rebel, bemoaning the poll drop under Ms Truss and the prospect of another leadership switch, said: “We are stuck between being politically dead and becoming a laughing stock.”

Mr Gove, the former levelling up secretary, followed up his opposition to the 45p tax cut yesterday by demanding that all Universal Credit claimants

to the United Kingdom is through a safe and legal route. If you deliberately enter the United Kingdom illegally from a safe country, you should be swiftly returned to your home country or relocated to Rwanda – that is where your asylum claim will be considered,” she said.

She admitted it could be months before the legal challenge that has grounded deportation flights of migrants to Rwanda has completed its course through the British and European courts.

But she said she was “actively looking” at other destination countries where migrants could be sent to claim asylum.

She defended negotiating a new deal to pay the French to combat the record 33,000 migrant small boat crossings this year.

She said France had stopped 40 to 50 per cent of crossings, or 20,000 migrants. “It’s not good enough but it’s better than nothing,” she said, adding she wanted 70 to 80 per cent.

Turning to crime, she revealed how she was mugged for her phone but failed to get any “retribution or justice” as police were only interested in providing her with a crime number for insurance purposes without any investigation into it.

The Home Secretary cited the incident as evidence of the “crisis of confidence” in the police that meant criminals believed they could escape justice because they would not be caught or charged by officers.

“It’s a very sad state of affairs, particularly on a Conservative watch as the party of law and order,” she said.

She blamed a “distortion of priorities” where the “PC [politically correct] brigade” obsessed with inclusion, diversity and equality had taken officers away from the “common sense policing” doing the “basics” of solving crimes and catching offenders.