Liz Truss has been heckled by protesters who shouted “who voted for fracking?” as the prime minister vowed to “get Britain moving” in her make-or-break speech to the Conservative Party conference.
The prime minister’s address came as her Labour predecessor Gordon Brown warned of a “national uprising” if Ms Truss fails to uprate universal credit in line with inflation, as she risked tearing open a fresh Cabinet rift by saying the matter was still up for debate.
The conference has been marked by a series of extraordinary ministerial clashes, Labour’s surging poll lead, and chaos in the Conservative ranks, with Michael Gove forced to deny leading a “coup” against Ms Truss over her tax-cutting U-turn, after highly unusual remarks to that effect by home secretary Suella Braverman.
But foreign secretary James Cleverly sought to play down Tory infighting, claiming the conference atmosphere was “fantastic” and rejecting “ridiculous” comments by his former Cabinet colleague Grant Shapps that Ms Truss had around 10 days to save her premiership.
