I was very struck by the above quotes from Liz Truss at an event in, of all places, Hungary.
The first obvious response to the comments is that Truss is deeply delusional, both about her own place in politics and the state of the world. A secondary perhaps more generous reading is, in need of a post-Westminster income, she is pandering in order to get conference gigs.
Either way, it seems pretty obvious to me this comment should be grounds for expulsion from the Conservative Party. Acting as an apologist for Orbanism and using language which alludes to the Hungarian government’s embrace of anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories (“Globalist conspiracies”) should be something placed outside the mainstream of British politics, and Badenoch has a chance to do that by making an example of Truss.
But aside from being the right thing to do, strategically, this seems a golden opportunity for Badenoch.
First, it allows for a clear break with the last Tory regime. Badenoch could actually go one better than Keir Starmer: he expelled a former party leader, but in the case of the Conservatives, this party leader is also a former Prime Minister. What greater gesture could be made in terms of starting to detoxify the party?
Second, it would actually be a decisive thing to do, a clear act of leadership. As opposition leader and especially one who is struggling after a massive election defeat, it is very hard to make headlines or even get attention. Expelling Truss would certainly gather some headlines, at least for a few days.
Third, Truss is a soft target. While the expulsion might generate some headlines and look like firm leadership, would there really be significant opposition? There might well be people with Orbanist politics in the Conservative Party or Reform, but are they really going to stand up to defend Truss? The likes of Robert Jenrick are clearly trying to outflank Badenoch to mount a leadership challenge to her right. But if he tried to do something similar on this issue, he would end up looking absolutely ludicrous going into bat for Liz Truss.
Fourth, I wanted to mention a point raised in response to original BlueSky post on this by Mikey Smith, Deputy Political Editor at the Sunday Mirror. It may well be the case that Truss is trying to go for the political equivalent of “death by cop”, saying more and more outrageous things in the hope that become a political martyr. And maybe that does happen, in the sense that she gets another riff she can use at CPAC.
But it also seems true to say that this isn’t really relevant to the strategic calculation that Badenoch faces. She needs to do something to reset her leadership, show she is relevant and above all show she is in charge. The party she leads faces major structural challenges, which are hardly going to fixed by one symbolic act. But if she is serious, she has to do something, and I would argue she could do a lot worse than by tackling the Liz Truss problem.
Addendum: I started drafting this post prior to seeing the front page of today’s Sun, which I don’t think makes my case any weaker.
