Liz Truss said she would make the “difficult but necessary” choices to get economic growth, but was heckled by environmental campaigners during her first conference speech as Tory leader.
The Prime Minister promised to steer the country through the “tempest” and “get Britain moving”.
Greenpeace protesters holding a flag which read “who voted for this?” were ejected from the hall after disrupting the speech, with Truss ordering security officers to “get them removed”.
Environmental campaigners were identified by her as “enemies of enterprise” as part of an “anti-growth coalition” including opposition parties, trade unions and “Brexit-deniers”.
The interruption to her speech in Birmingham followed a bruising conference for Truss after just a month in the job, including a u-turn over a totemic tax policy and dissent within her Cabinet.
Despite the decision to ditch plans to scrap the 45p top rate of tax, Truss insisted “we must stay the course” in pursuit of her three priorities: “Growth, growth and growth.”
She told the audience: “This mission will be difficult but necessary, we have no alternative if we want to get our economy growing again, I am ready to make hard choices.”
Setting out her vision, Truss said: “Growth means more money in people’s pockets and for businesses creating jobs.
“Growth means people can feel secure and plan for their future, fundamentally it enables people to fulfil their hopes and dreams.”
In a sign of support for Kwasi Kwarteng following the humiliation of the 45p u-turn, Truss said she was “in lockstep” with her “dynamic” Chancellor.
She said: “Cutting taxes is the right thing to do morally and economically - morally, because the state does not spend its own money, it spends the people’s - and economically, because if people keep more of their own money, they are inspired to do more of what they do best.”
A low tax economy was a sign that “Britain is open for business”, she said.
But in an attempt to calm markets which had been spooked by Kwarteng’s mini-budget, Truss promised to “keep an iron grip on the nation’s finances”.
She stated support for “sound money and the lean state,” adding: “I remember my shock opening my first paycheque to see how much money the taxman had taken out; I know this feeling is replicated across the country.”
Rising interest rates risk causing misery for homeowners, but Truss stressed the independence of the Bank of England over that, although she noted that “the Chancellor and the governor will keep closely co-ordinating our monetary and fiscal policy”.
She also promised reforms to slash red tape, promising: “Now is the time to harness the power of free enterprise to transform our country and ensure our best days lie ahead.”
In a sign of the difficulties she faces, shortly ahead of her speech YouGov released polling suggesting Truss is already more unpopular than her predecessor Boris Johnson or former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ever were.
Just 14% of the public now say they have a favourable impression of the Prime Minister compared with 26% who said so between 21 and 22 September.
Nearly three-quarters now see the Prime Minister in an unfavourable light, including more than half who see her very unfavourably.
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