From 4h ago Starmer tells BCC why he is prioritising GDP, saying growth is ‘better jobs, public services, holidays, meals out, more cash’ Keir Starmer is addressing the BCC conference now. He starts by talking about growth, and explaining why one of his “missions” for Labour is for the UK to have the highest sustained growth in the G7 in the next parliament. He says: I know what a lot of people in Westminster say about growth. They say it’s an abstract concept, doesn’t resonate, doesn’t connect with peoples’ lives,…
Tag: Liz Truss
Liz Truss in Taiwan calls for ‘economic Nato’ to challenge China
Free nations must commit themselves to a free Taiwan and must be prepared to back it up with concrete measures, Liz Truss has said in a keynote speech in Taipei, in which she called for an “economic Nato” to tackle Beijing’s growing authoritarianism. The former British prime minister said she had come to show support for Taiwan, which was “on the frontline of the global battle for freedom”, under threat from a totalitarian regime in China. Truss arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a five-day visit, and is expected to…
China brands Liz Truss’s trip to Taiwan a ‘dangerous political stunt’
Liz Truss’s trip to Taiwan this week is a “dangerous political stunt”, the Chinese embassy in London has said, as the former prime minister prepares to call on Rishi Sunak to declare Beijing a “threat” to UK security. She is expected to use a speech in Taipei City on Wednesday to challenge the prime minister to deliver on his rhetoric during last summer’s Conservative party leadership contest, when he declared China “the biggest-long term threat to Britain”. He also promised to close all 30 of the UK’s Confucius Institutes, which…
The Observer view on Liz Truss’s intervention in Taiwan | Observer editorial
To Liz Truss’s many failings must now be added an apparent prejudice against Rutland. Not unlike the island of Taiwan, England’s smallest historic county has fought hard over the years to maintain its independence from a larger, overbearing neighbour. For China, read Leicestershire. Now its Conservative MP, Alicia Kearns, has become the target of a nasty geopolitical sneer. If you hail from landlocked rural Rutland, Truss’s spokesperson superciliously implied last week, you probably don’t understand international affairs. This insulting inference was made after Kearns had the temerity to question the…
Liz Truss’s plan to visit Taiwan called ‘worst kind of Instagram diplomacy’
The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee has launched a blistering attack on Liz Truss over the former prime minister’s planned trip to Taiwan, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”. Alicia Kearns said she thought Truss’s trip planned for next week was little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief spell as prime minister last year. Truss is planning to travel to show “solidarity” with the Taiwanese people amid aggression from Beijing. Taiwan is a self-governing democracy, but Beijing…
Boris Johnson became suspicious of Sue Gray during Partygate inquiry, says ex-adviser – UK politics live
From 2h ago Boris Johnson became ‘suspicious’ of Sue Gray as she carried out her inquiry, says Guto Harri Good morning. With the coronation over, politics is back in spades after three days where it has been effectively marginalised. There is plenty around. But let’s start with the latest instalment of the Boris Johnson Tory psychodrama. Guto Harri, Johnson’s communications director when Johnson was PM, is launching a new podcast about his time in No 10 and, in an article for the Daily Mail, he claimed that Johnson and King…
Liz Truss to visit Taiwan and give speech that could upset UK’s China strategy
The former prime minister Liz Truss is to visit Taiwan next week, where she will deliver a speech likely to anger Beijing and potentially upset the UK government’s careful approach to China relations. Truss said on Tuesday: “Taiwan is a beacon of freedom and democracy. I’m looking forward to showing solidarity with the Taiwanese people in person in the face of increasingly aggressive behaviour and rhetoric from the regime in Beijing.” The former Conservative leader’s office said on Tuesday that she was also expected to meet senior members of the…
‘Sign of weakness’: Truss criticises Von der Leyen and Macron for visiting China – video
The former British prime minister Liz Truss has criticised the visit by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula Von der Leyen, to Beijing, describing it as a mistake. Speaking during a Q&A after delivering the 2023 Margaret Thatcher freedom lecture on Wednesday, Truss said: ‘The idea that we can treat China as just another global player is wrong. It is a totalitarian regime and we need to adapt our policies accordingly.’ Truss also called on western countries to take a stronger line on Taiwan The…
Former Conservative chairman says Liz Truss interventions should be less frequent
Liz Truss’s political interventions “should be like sex in a long and happy relationship, infrequent but anticipated with glee”, the former Conservative party chairman has said. Sir Jake Berry, formerly a key defender of Truss’s failed radical plans, said it is time for the former prime minister to figure out her new backbench role. Early on Friday, Truss made her second public intervention since being ousted from No 10 to urge democratic nations to stand up to China and learn the lessons of not taking earlier and tougher action against…
Liz Truss urges ‘economic Nato’ to stand up to China – video
Liz Truss has used her first overseas speech since resigning as Britain’s prime minister to call on the west to safeguard Taiwan’s security and economy in the face of Chinese aggression ‘before it’s too late’. Speaking in Tokyo at a meeting of mainly conservative politicians, Truss said Britain had been naive to court the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in 2015. She said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a warning of what happens when democracies fail to stand up to authoritarian regimes. ‘When it comes to China, a failure to act now could cost…