Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has taken a swipe at the "fairytale economics" of Liz Truss and her backers in the latest front of the Tory civil war.
Despite claiming the Tories "aren't tribal", the Education Secretary gave a speech attacking parts of her own party and seeking to cast herself as the heir to Margaret Thatcher.
The bizarre assertion comes days after Boris Johnson quit as an MP and stoked a fresh wave of vicious Tory infighting.
In a speech to an audience of right-wingers, Ms Keegan invoked the spirit of Mrs Thatcher, who she said would not have slashed taxes until inflation was under control.
She also made several scathing jibes at ex-PM Liz Truss, who modelled herself closely on the Iron Lady and was mocked for posing in a tank like her heroine.
"Selectively choosing bits of the legacy and dressing it up as Thatcherism is a betrayal of her great legacy," Ms Keegan told the Centre for Policy Studies' annual Margaret Thatcher Conference in London.
And she took a not-so veiled swipe at Ms Truss's "fairytale economics", which trashed the economy by spooking the markets with a tax-cutting bonanza.
Ms Keegan said: "Financing expensive projects or pursuing only the tax cuts element without sound money and fiscal discipline is fairytale economics.
"Forget that simple lesson, and we forget Thatcherism."
Ms Keegan said the Government “must listen to the markets” and can’t just "say the word growth and expect it to happen".
She slapped down low-tax Tories who have been pressing Rishi Sunak to act, arguing that the Government must curb inflation before it can slash taxes.
"Whilst lower taxes are at the heart of Conservative economic thinking, Margaret Thatcher never thought that the way to achieve a low-tax economy was by dramatically increasing public sector debt and borrowing," she said.
"She knew that you had to deal with inflation first otherwise every tax cut or spending pledge would be eaten by inflation.
"That focus, that grip, that is what this Government is channelling."
Ms Keegan, 55, who has been touted as a future leadership contender, said her politics had been shaped by growing up in a Labour family in Liverpool, where she got a Saturday job in a shop at 14 and left school to work in a car factory when she was 16.
"I learned that you need to make the sums add up," she said, saying the true legacy of Mrs Thatcher was "sound money and strong economic foundations".
Former Tory leadership contender Penny Mordaunt said her party needed to stop ranting about the culture wars and talk more about lowering taxes and building houses.
Taking aim at fellow MPs who push divisive rhetoric for political gain, the Commons Leader said it was time to "reframe our story".
She told the conference: "It requires all of us, and that's why I'm unapologetic about talking about building more and taxing less, and not talking about culture wars, because it doesn't move the country forward."
Veteran US pollster Frank Luntz told her that the Tories could add 10 seats by leaning into culture wars rhetoric but it would "destroy the country".
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.
