The newly elected prime minister Liz Truss just delivered her victory speech to a room full of Conservative Party members – but, it didn’t seem to land very well.
Truss, who was foreign secretary in Boris Johnson’s last cabinet, has developed a reputation for gaffes over her years in the political spotlight. Tuesday’s speech was no exception, it seems.
Truss was quick to thank everyone who worked with her on her campaign and her final opponent, Rishi Sunak.
But things started to go south when she said: “I also want to thank my friend, our outgoing leader, Boris Johnson.”
After a short pause for applause, (which did come), she said: “Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.
“You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.”
This time, there was no immediate applause, even though Truss did pause to wait for it and glance around the room.
This led to a painful moment where just a handful of claps echoed around the hall, before everyone in the room seemed to decide it was a good idea to applaud Johnson after all.
It’s worth remembering that, less than two months ago, almost 60 ministers resigned from Johnson’s government, forcing him to resign.
So – even though he’s still popular among some corners of the Tory Party – the general consensus was that he had squandered his 80-seat majority.
This moment seemed to shake the audience a little, as clapping after that becoming more hesitant, even when Truss said the Conservative Party was “the greatest political party on Earth”.
Still, she pressed on: “I know – I know our beliefs resonate with the British people. Our beliefs in freedom, in thee ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility.
“And I know, that’s why people voted for us in such numbers in 2019.”
Since 2019, the Conservatives have plummeted in the polls, and only this summer, the Tories lost two by-elections on the same day.
Truss tried to keep the contents of her speech upbeat, but even when she made promises such as rebuilding the NHS, the applause seemed reluctant.
Still, Truss did get a standing ovation at the end of her speech while she walked out of the room, smiling.
The BBC’s Vicky Young analysed the speech afterwards and noticed that it was particularly short.
Speaking on BBC One, Young said: “Now, I don’t think anyone would ever accuse her of being a brilliant public speaker, she’s had some pretty woeful speeches in the past, she’s not particularly comfortable doing it – she kept it pretty short there, didn’t she?
“I think getting on with it, I mean business, is going to be the kind of image she wants to project over the next few days.”
Truss’ majority of 81,326 votes – compared to Sunak’s 60,399 – secured her place in No.10, but was not quite the lead predicted by some forecasters.
Johnson was also elected with a much larger majority of 92,153 (66.4% of the total vote), which suggests Truss may find some problems uniting the heavily fractured Conservative Party.