Liz Truss attacks ‘militant unions, Brexit deniers’ and green groups as ‘anti-growth coalition’

Prime minister lashes out at ‘enemies of enterprise’ obsessed with ‘more taxes, more regulation and more meddling’

Liz Truss has attacked “militant unions, Brexit deniers” and green campaigners as elements of an “anti-growth coalition” holding Britain back.

In her conference speech – disrupted by Greenpeace protesters – the prime minister also turned her fire on “talking heads” and “think tanks”, as she struggles to set out her Growth Plan.

She accused her opponents as being obsessed with “more taxes, more regulation and more meddling, also calling them “enemies of enterprise” and saying: “Wrong, wrong, wrong.”

Ms Truss told the Tory faithful: “I will not allow the anti-growth coalition to hold us back.

“Labour, the Lib Dems the SNP, militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion – and some of the people we had in the hall earlier.”

The prime minister claimed the anti-growth coalition “just don’t get it”, because they have no interest in who pays their wages – or how frustrating it is to have roads blocked by protesters.

And she urged the public not to see such groups as heroes, because the real heroes are the people who go out to work and help the economy grow.

In the 35-minute speech, at the end of a disastrous conference riven by U-turns and public spats, Ms Truss said she had “three priorities”, adding: “Growth, growth and growth.”

She set out the aims of controversial reforms to come, to rip up rules that means “decisions take too long”, infrastructure is “delayed for years and years” and “houses are not built”.

There was a promise to change a country “averse to doing things differently”, also pledging more affordable childcare and superfast broadband and mobile phone signals for all.

Ms Truss defended cutting taxes as “the right thing to do morally and economically” – even after being forced to abandon scrapping the 45p tax rate for top earners after a Tory revolt.

“Morally, because the state doesn’t spend its own money: it spends the people’s money,” she told the conference.

“Economically, because if people keep more of their own money, they’re inspired to do more of what they do best – that’s what grows the economy.

“When the government plays too big a role, people feel smaller. High taxes mean you feel it’s less worthwhile working that extra hour, going for a better job or setting up your own business.”

But Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said Ms Truss could not escape an economic crisis “made in Downing Street, paid for by working people facing higher mortgages and soaring costs”

“She has been at the heart of building a Conservative economy that has led to the flat wages and low growth she highlighted today,” Ms Reeves said.

“The most important thing the prime minister can do right now to stabilise the economy is to immediately reverse her government’s kamikaze Budget when parliament returns next week.”