Liz Truss, the former prime minister, has sparked calls for her expulsion from the Conservative Party after telling a rightwing US conference that Britain is 'failing' and needs a Donald Trump-style 'Maga' movement to save it. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, Truss claimed the UK is run by a 'deep state' of unelected bureaucrats and judges.
Truss, who served only 49 days as PM and lost her seat in last year's general election, said: 'We now have a major problem in Britain that judges are making decisions that should be made by politicians.' She argued that the judiciary is 'no longer accountable' due to reforms by Tony Blair, and that 'the British state is now failing'.
The former PM called for a movement akin to America's Maga to 'push change we all want', adding: 'We want to have a British CPAC.' CPAC organiser Matt Schlapp replied: 'It's a deal!' The speech has angered many Tories, with some MPs demanding disciplinary action against Truss for undermining the party and the country.
Truss was joined at the conference by other rightwing populists, including Steve Bannon, who pushed deep state conspiracy theories, and Miklós Szánthó, head of CPAC Hungary, who declared Hungary 'the island of freedom in the liberal ocean of Europe'. Officials from Australia, Japan, South Korea and Eduardo Bolsonaro also attended.
The conference closed with a resolution against 'globalism', which all participants signed. Truss's appearance at CPAC underscores her shift to the fringes of British politics, but she found a receptive audience among international conservatives gathering to plan deeper ties and cooperation.
