Liz Truss made a ferocious attack on what she termed the “anti-growth coalition” who are standing in the way of the Conservative Party’s agenda.
In her keynote conference speech, the prime minister railed against those she accused of trying to hold back her pro-growth agenda, including Labour, “militant” unions, “Brexit deniers”, Extinction Rebellion and “some of the people we had in the hall earlier” – a reference to the protesters who disrupted her address.
It’s clearly an attack line her senior team are rallying around, as Cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi was among those to tweet out the slogan.
It’s worth printing the diatribe in full to get a better idea of who she thinks they are and what they do:
“I will not allow the anti-growth coalition to hold us back.
“Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, the militant unions, the vested interests dressed up as think tanks, the talking heads, the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion and some of the people we had in the hall earlier.
“The fact is they prefer protesting to doing. They prefer talking on Twitter to taking tough decisions.
“They taxi from north London townhouses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo.
“From broadcast to podcast, they peddle the same old answers.
“It’s always more taxes, more regulation and more meddling.
“Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
It seems to be a wide-ranging term that could anyone you would file under “the establishment” or anything vaguely “woke”.
Given the elasticity of the phrase, questions were asked about whether healthy food campaigner Jamie Oliver was also part of the rabble putting the brakes on Truss and her policies.
In her speech, the PM signalled the scrapping of the planned ban on junk food multi-buy deals as she declared she is “not interested in how many two-for-one offers you buy at the supermarket”.
Downing Street later did not rule out that the anti-growth coalition included the celebrity chef, who supports the ban.
The prime minister’s press secretary suggested there could be a scrapping of the planned ban of buy one, get one free offers, saying: “You’ll have to wait for announcements on that.”
When asked if Oliver is part of the anti-growth coalition, he responded: “I’m not going to name individuals.”
The speech has prompted people on Twitter to suggest a whole range of members of the coalition, including bats, David Attenborough and Conservative councils.