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Former Conservative PM Liz Truss claimed the Labour party was “in hock” to terrorists during an appearance on a fringe right-wing platform on Wednesday, as calls grew for her to be stripped of her Conservative candidacy.
In a sympathetic interview of Truss with the Lotus Eaters podcast – founded by UKIP-backing ‘anti-feminist’ YouTuber Carl Benjamin – the ousted ex-PM claimed the Labour party was “in hock to very left-wing activists who are pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist, antisemitic,” while failing to back up her claim.
After an intro by show host Connor Tomlinson condemning Byline Times‘ reporting on the topic, Truss began the video podcast to promote her book by claiming that Lotus Eaters was her “favourite kind” of outlet, as it was not, in the words of the host, “Westminster-approved”.
Truss repeated her recent claims that the West was “destroyed from within” and, backing Trump, expressed her belief that “If Joe Biden stays in the White House…It could lead to our ultimate decline.”
In long, uninterrupted segments, Truss launched a stream of invective against institutions she believed had wronged her during her 49-day tenure as Prime Minister in 2022.
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Truss condemned the Bank of England (BoE) for apparently not believing in “monetarism”, the theory that controlling the money supply is key to economic stability.
She hit out at Labour for “handing out” over control of monetary policy to the Bank of England, and George Osborne for creating the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which she barred from reviewing her mini-budget prior to publication.
Among a litany of allegations, Truss accused the OBR of effectively leaking a forecast of a £17 billion hole in her mini-budget, as a plot to destabilise her rocky government.
In words reminiscent of the Trump movement in the US, Truss criticised the “liberal media”, describing it as “a group of people with a set of views and going against them is very, very painful, and carries a very high price for politicians.”
She suggested that politicians who do not upset the status quo are more likely to be invited to more dinner parties. Though she did add, believably: “I don’t think I was ever invited to them, to be honest.”
Truss reeled off a series of institutions and laws she would like to see abolished: “What we need to do is we need to repeal the Human Rights Act. We need to abolish the Supreme Court. We also need to repeal the Equality Act. We also need to make the civil service more accountable…You also need to scrap the OBR.”
She called for the abolition of Tony Blair’s Constitutional Reform Act, which ended the strange set-up where the highest court in the land was made up of members of the House of Lords, with its head – the Lord Chancellor – appointed by the Government – a clear breach of any separation of powers making the UK out as a black sheep among advanced democracies.
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Truss said Prime Ministers directly appointing judges “provided a direct line to parliamentary sovereignty”. She called for the abolition of the Gender Recognition Act, which provides trans people with a route for legally changing their gender.
The disgraced ex-PM lamented that too many in the Tory party consider Blair to be their “master”.
And she claimed that people on the left are “more willing to spend time working in government”, which apparently means that it “weeds out right-wing candidates” for public bodies.
She cited apparent battles by her to get controversial headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh appointed as the Government’s so-called Social Mobility Tsar.
Truss blamed human rights laws for the apparent failure of the UK to deport asylum seekers.
Responding to fears from host Connor Tomlinson that “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians “who have very hostile views towards people in Britain”, Truss said: “We shouldn’t let it happen” – in other words, arguing against humanitarian visas for Palestinians displaced by the war on the basis that Palestinians would be “hostile”.
“The problem is the Labour Party is in hock to some very left wing activists who are pro Hamas…pro-terrorist, they’re anti-Semitic, they’re anti-Israel. And that is who they are worried about.
“And you can see some of their base is shifting to the Green Party. We had that terrible Green councillor elected who is representing those types of views.”
That appears to be a reference to newly-elected Leeds councillor Mothin Ali, who previously claimed Hamas ‘had a right to fight back’ against Israel and who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) after winning his council seat. He subsequently apologised for his comments on the Gaza conflict and the Green Party is investigating his conduct.
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Labour MP writes to PM Sunak over Liz Truss appearing on Lotus Eaters, a show founded by Carl Benjamin, who stated he “wouldn’t even rape” her
“There is a strand of thinking in Britain that is actively against our country, pro terrorist, and is influential within the Labour Party and the only thing we can do about that is to get right thinking people in Britain to protest because the left are very good at protests,” Truss said.
Again without evidence, Truss claimed of pro-ceasefire demonstrations: “Those protests are being funded by major donors. They’re being funded, I believe, by authoritarian regimes as well, who want to see our society destroyed.”
Echoing Conservative Commons leader Penny Mordaunt’s widely-mocked calls for the right to “stand up and fight”, Truss said: “We have to fight back…That is ultimately the only way we can take on what is now a very prevalent group of left wing activists.”
She then railed against climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, claming she had “moved from being an eco extremist to now being a terrorist sympathiser.”
Veering into conspiracy theory territory, she said: “These are the same people, it’s the same people who are behind the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Egged on by the interviewer, Truss said “I don’t like the idea of Sharia law operating in the United Kingdom.”
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“Excellent, well I appreciate that. It’s a bit of a tabboo,” Tomlinson said, noting correctly that those who talk up supposed Sharia Law in Britain are often branded far-right
On her brief time in office, Truss spoke about “powerful forces” she encountered, and a type of “grassroots movement” on the right to take on these shadow figures.
She descrbied her time in office as a “salutary” experience – unpleasant but providing long-term benefits. Labour would no doubt agree, given that her premiership is being used to slate Rishi Sunak and his current Conservative election campaign.
Georgie Laming, head of campaigns at Hope not Hate, told Byline Times: “It is inconceivable for an MP to appear on the Lotus Eaters and still expect to be taken seriously in politics.
Her comments that left-wing activists are antisemitic are ironic as the live chat box was flooded with unrelated conspiracy theories about Jews “funding antisemitism” and Jews being “hoisted by their own canard”
“The Prime Minister must expel her swiftly.”
Defending his outlet on X, Carl Benjamin wrote on X: “We are a popular and mainstream conservative publication, which is well-liked and well-respected by our peers, because of the work we do with them. It is natural that a conservative such as Liz Truss would want to speak to us to help facilitate an interesting exchange of ideas and for her to speak directly to the conservative base without fear.”
He claimed he had been “attacked and misrepresented by sitting MP Jess Phillips”, and he denied claims that he promoted the Great Replacement Theory. “I do not believe that immigration is a conspiracy, I believe it to be a political fact, and the cold reality of mass immigration is that it replaces one population with another.”
He added: “To call Lotuseaters a “hateful” platform is to have had no engagement with it; a core part of our mission is to nurture “men with chests”, that is, an audience who loves and appreciates their own country, it’s history, it’s culture, and its customs, and understands how our countries merit this love.”
Liz Truss’ team did not respond to requests for comment.
Update 10th June: This piece was amended to correct a typo of Connor Tomlinson’s name.
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