Liz Truss and the battle for the Tory grassroots

Liz Truss has defended the policies she tried to push through during her short time as prime minister, adding to speculation that she wants to return to high office.

In a speech at an event held by the Institute for Government think tank, she argued that she could not deliver her plans because of the "political and economic establishment".

"The Trussites may be in exile," wrote Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman, "but they do not believe their ideas have been defeated."

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However, a survey by YouGov this month found that 81% of respondents felt she had done badly as prime minister, including 80% among Conservative voters. 

So can Truss win back the grassroots and mount a political comeback?

'Loyal rump'

Although her speech "prompted a furious response from some colleagues", Truss "still commands the backing of a small but loyal rump of MPs on the Conservative right", said the Financial Times.

Her "ability to galvanise some quarters of the right of her party to speak up on tax and the green agenda is only part of the problem she presents for [Rishi] Sunak", it said. Another difficulty for the prime minister is "her willingness to pick fights with the economic establishment over her doomed economic strategy".

Truss's popularity among those on the right of the party and her appeal, "in particular, to the Tory grassroots" remains "unabated", said the inews site. It is "from this base" that she aims to "push the party into more pro-growth policies".

She "gets invited to speak to grassroots members at events around the country", an ally told the news site, boasting that she receives "so many" invitations that she "can’t possibly attend them all".

She will speak at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester next month, but a source from within her camp insisted this was not an attempt to undermine Sunak by indulging in "personality politics". Rather, it is "purely about ensuring the Tory party is pushing the right policy platform that she believes the country needs".

"Publicly – and privately – there are many in the Conservative Party who think the pendulum has swung too far under Rishi Sunak," said Ali Fortescue, political correspondent for Sky News, and they "want a more coherent plan for growth". 

But "any remarks worth listening to" are "drowned out by the facts of history", she added, and Truss's "unwillingness to accept what happened" during her brief and disastrous reign.

So, although her speech "may have been the starting gun in her big comeback attempt", the "bigger question is whether anyone is really listening".

'Brass neck'

Her plans have been dismissed by "more centrist Tories", said the inews site, including George Osborne’s former adviser and prospective Tory MP Rupert Harrison, who criticised the "brass neck" of Truss. "Happily, nobody in the Conservative Party or the government is listening," he said.

Truss has made it clear she is not "going away", wrote John Crace for The Guardian, "even though that's precisely what most Tories want her to do. To shut up and stop embarrassing herself and them."

A former MP who worked alongside Truss in government described her as "really lacking in EQ [emotional intelligence], the way she goes about things", said Politico.

Another former colleague of Truss told the news site that "every time she says anything conspicuous, the public is reminded that Liz Truss was prime minister and that it wasn't some sort of fever dream". The Tories "should be trying to push that further into the past", they added.

Nevertheless, wrote Iain Watson, political correspondent for the BBC, "it is worth remembering that a majority of rank-and-file party members had backed her leadership bid last year".