Liz Truss has sparked speculation she’s eyeing a political comeback alongside Nigel Farage after she urged him to join the Tories and ‘help turn our country around’.
The ex-PM, who spent 49 days in No10 before quitting amid economic turmoil, expressed her wish for the former UKIP leader to return to the Conservative fold.
Both Ms Truss and Mr Farage are attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC – a key annual event in right-wing US politics.
In a speech to the conference last night, Ms Truss stressed the world ‘needs a Republican back in the White House’ but stopped short of directly endorsing ex-president Donald Trump for a return to the Oval Office.
She also claimed conservatives being in power was the only way to ‘save the West’ from opponents such as Russia, Iran and China.
Liz Truss has sparked speculation she’s eyeing a political comeback alongside Nigel Farage after she urged him to join the Tories and ‘help turn our country around’
![Both Ms Truss and Mr Farage are attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC - a key annual event in right-wing US politics](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/10/81620093-13117307-image-a-11_1708684856584.jpg)
Both Ms Truss and Mr Farage are attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC – a key annual event in right-wing US politics
![The ex-premier and former UKIP leader spoke on the same panel at a CPAC event on Wednesday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/10/81620473-13117307-image-a-12_1708684868796.jpg)
The ex-premier and former UKIP leader spoke on the same panel at a CPAC event on Wednesday
![In an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon after her CPAC address, Ms Truss said she was willing to work with Mr Farage to change the Tories](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/23/10/81620507-13117307-image-a-13_1708684870979.jpg)
In an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon after her CPAC address, Ms Truss said she was willing to work with Mr Farage to change the Tories
Mr Farage, who went on to found the Brexit Party – now known as Reform UK – after quitting UKIP, has recently attended major speeches by Ms Truss.
In his capacity as a GB News presenter, Mr Farage attended Ms Truss’s ‘Great British Growth Rally’ at the Tory conference in October.
He was also in the audience when Ms Truss helped launch the new ‘Popular Conservatism’ – or ‘PopCon’ – faction of Tory MPs earlier this month.
In an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon after her CPAC address last night, Ms Truss said she was willing to work with Mr Farage to change the Tories.
‘I will work with whoever it takes to make our country successful, I will work with whoever.
‘And Nigel, I’ve done an interview with him today, I would like him to become a member of the Conservative Party and help turn our country around.’
The ex-PM also suggested Mr Bannon, who is facing fraud charges in New York, could ‘come over to Britain and sort out Britain’, to which he joked that he ‘may be banned in Britain’.
Ms Truss used the interview to complain about how she could not push through her economic policies when she was in Downing Street, following the chaotic unravelling of her tax-cutting ‘mini-Budget’ in September 2022.
She said: ‘What I discovered was I was not holding the levers, the levers were held by the Bank of England, by the Office for Budget Responsibility – they weren’t held by the prime minister or the chancellor.’
Mr Bannon replied: ‘Are you a conspiracy theory person? You’re MAGA!’
Mr Farage has recently hinted he could rejoin the Tories – a party he quit more than 30 years ago following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
He said last week that he and Tory MPs such as Sir Jacob Rees Mogg will some day ‘have to be in the same party’ as he urged unity on the right of British politics – but he remained coy about a possible future bid to lead the Conservatives.
Mr Farage has also left open the possibility of returning to the political frontline as leader of Reform UK ahead of the general election.
In her 15-minute address to CPAC on Thursday, Ms Truss took aim at ‘Chinos’ – conservatives in name only.
‘It’s people who think “I want to be popular, I don’t want to upset people, I don’t want to look like a mean person, I want to attend nice dinner parties in London or Washington DC, I want my friends to like me, I don’t want to cause trouble”,’ she said.
‘What those people are doing is they are compromising, and they are triangulating, and they are losing the argument.’
Ms Truss also repeated claims that an ‘administrative state’ and left-wing interests had undermined her policies in No10.
‘Conservatives are now operating in what is now a hostile environment and we essentially need a bigger bazooka,’ she added.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk