Conservatives need a bigger bazooka, Truss tells US right-wing event

Conservatives in both the US and UK need a "bigger bazooka" to fight the left, former Prime Minister Liz Truss has told an event in Maryland.

"Unless conservatives become more active in speaking out... Western civilisation is doomed," Ms Truss said.

She was speaking at the biggest annual gathering of conservatives in the US.

The UK's shortest-serving PM - who was in Downing Street for six weeks - also sought to peg her downfall to "antagonism" from the establishment.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats accused Ms Truss of spreading "conspiracy theories".

The former prime minister was speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), hosted by the American Conservative Union, which runs until Saturday.

The grassroots gathering is one of the leading events on the conservative political calendar, and has been transformed in recent years into a heavily pro-Donald Trump affair, a reflection of his takeover of the Republican Party.

Other speakers this week include Nigel Farage, the presidents of El Salvador and Argentina, and Mr Trump himself on Saturday.

During Ms Truss' 20-minute speech on Thursday afternoon - in between sessions that covered topics including transgender children, oil and gas and a speech from Lara Trump, Mr Trump's daughter-in-law - she sought to attack the establishment in the UK and US.

"We have to understand how deep the vested interests of the establishment are, how hard they will fight, and how unfairly they will fight in order to get their way," she said. "And that is what I learnt from my time as a government minister and my time in No 10."

"The West has been run by the Left for too long and it's been a complete disaster," she said.

"In Britain we are one of the few countries that still have a conservative government."

Despite that, she said conservatives had to "challenge the system itself", saying: "It's not even enough to get the position of power that you need to deliver those policies because conservatives are now operating in a hostile environment... we essentially need a bigger bazooka in order to be able to deliver."

And she accused people on the left of the politics of "weaponising our court system" and "pushing their woke agenda through our schools".

She said because of people on the left, the West has been seen as weak, which had helped what she called "our enemies", countries such as Russia, Iran and China.

"We've enabled Putin by not taking action early enough when he could be stopped," she said.

During her 45 days in office Ms Truss was remembered for announcing a series of economic measures widely blamed for reducing the value of the pound and panicking financial markets.

She addressed her short tenure as prime minister during the speech, saying she had "faced the most almighty backlash for those conservative policies I tried to put in place".

She said: "From the usual suspects in the corporate world, but also from people who were meant to work for the government. The OBR, the Bank of England.

"And even President Biden intervened to have a go at my policies. Can you imagine being attacked on your economic policies by the inventor of Bidenomics?" she said to laughter.

The US president's vast package of subsidies and tax breaks for industry has been dubbed "Bidenomics".

Labour's shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth described Ms Truss's comments as "damaging nonsense" about a "deep state".

"After crashing the economy and sending mortgages rocketing, Liz Truss is now spreading conspiracy theories with Steve Bannon and spearheading a wacky fringe group to take over the Tory Party again," he added.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper also poured scorn on the speech, saying: "This Conservative Party love-in for right-wing American politics is like watching a slow-moving car crash."

She called for Ms Truss to be stripped of the allowance she currently receives for being a former PM. The Public Duty Costs Allowance for all former prime ministers is currently set at £115,000.

Ms Truss did not disclose whom she would be backing in the race to be the Republican candidate for this year's US election, but she said: "Of course we need a Republican back in the White House. We need it desperately."

Mr Trump is currently the frontrunner in the race to pick the Republican Party's candidate for this year's presidential election, which takes place in November.

This weekend marks another stage in the race - with South Carolina the next state to pick its preferred Republican candidate. Nikki Haley, Mr Trump's rival, is currently trailing badly in the state.