It looks like PopCon is gearing up to be more than just a movement pushing for free-market ideas. It appears Director Mark Littlewood and the Popular Conservatism team are prepping for a Tory leadership election after the presumed general election loss, planning to put up a free-market leaning MP to ensure no wets are selected. Littlewood is reported to have 70/70/70 strategy in his plans to install a Trussite leader. Get 70 MPs’ and 70,000 members’ support, 70 days after the election. Though the numbers may be tough for PopCon to reach when polls are saying that the Tories may only keep 140 MPs after the election, most of which are likely to be One Nation…
Farage was getting a lot of attention today at the PopCon launch. Despite attending as a GB News presenter, it was himself who was being interviewed rather than the other way around. Speaking to TalkTV, he said it is “not his intention” to stand for Reform UK, though to keep people guessing a little longer, he caveated “but who knows?”. Though it doesn’t look like he’ll stand for the Tories either. He went on to say that there’s “no way Reform will do any deal with the Conservatives” as “we and many millions of others feel betrayed by them”. He later pointed out to Guido that the Tories ought to be careful as everyone will just vote Reform at the next election…
Liz Truss has just finished speaking at the launch of “Popular Conservatism”, at which speakers including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson railed against the smoking ban, quangos, “Green weirdos“, pandemic lockdowns, and the Supreme Court. Truss’ argument is that Tories aren’t prepared to argue for individual freedom-oriented policies that are actually popular on the doorstep but receive pushback from “elite” institutions and sentiment in London. Truss says “too many colleagues look to be popular at London dinner parties” – she isn’t invited to them anyway…
Truss says the group has three broad aims:
- Make the case for democratic accountability of politics to the public.
- Galvanise conservative forces all to disseminate their views, particularly among the youth.
- Communicate with public about policies in a more effective way.
Truss went on the argue Tories need to use a popular conservative movement to lead a grassroots effort to create the required “political weather” for structural reform, instead of telling the public about endless “personality issues” in Westminster and allowing the left to capture institutions. Liz finished with: “This is just the beginning” – Guido hopes there won’t have to be too many more of them…
Liz Truss is launching her new Tory group tomorrow called “Popular Conservatism” whose stated aim is to “restore democratic accountability to Britain and deliver popular conservative policies“. Ahead of that, pollsters Savanta have conducted some polling into the popularity of UK politicians. The voters have some ideas of their own…
Cruelly the polling shows that 65% of voters have an unfavourable view of Truss. Even among 2019 Tory voters she sits at -53%. That gives Liz a net favourability rating of -54, compared to Sunak on -27 and Starmer on -8. Cleverly gets away with mild -17%…
Savanta’s Political Research Director Chris Hopkins said:
“Our research shows that many ideas associated with free market Conservatism are popular with the UK public. One of their main advocates right now – Liz Truss – is not. It is ironic that Popular Conservatism couldn’t find a more unpopular spokesperson if they actively tried”.
Truss’ group launches tomorrow with the aim of changing that – pop-con at the ready…
