Ex-Prime Minister Liz Truss has said that the launch of the Popular Conservatism movement is about building a grassroots movement to challenge left-wing orthodoxy.
She told Christopher Hope, the Political Editor of GB News: “We've had a Conservative government for 14 years and we've achieved many things, including Brexit trade deals, keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of office.
“But one of the problems we have, even though we've got a Conservative government, is what we're seeing in our schools, in our universities, in our corporate sector, the spreading of wokery and left-wing ideas.
“What PopCon is about, is about combating that because the people of Britain want us to deal with real issues.
“Immigration is too high. The government's too big, taxes are too high. But what we constantly hear is the left. So PopCon is about challenging that, it is about challenging the left-wing orthodoxy and making it positive to be a Conservative.”
During her discussion with GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope, she added: “We need a grassroots movement. That's what this is about. It's about making sure that the environment is positive for conservatism, so that people feel empowered to talk about being a Conservative and it becomes a positive thing in society.
“I believe that Conservative solutions are the right solutions. I know from talking on the doorstep to residents in Norfolk, that's what they want. They want us to deliver Conservative policies.
“They know that a man is a man and a woman is a woman. But what we need is a grassroots movement to challenge that left-wing idea.”
She added: “We've done great things as a government, but what this is about, it's about the long-term. It's about influencing society, because it's not just about what the Government does.
“It's also about what happens in our corporations. What happens in all schools, and for that, you can't just tell people what to do from government. You actually need to influence the debate, and you need to make it a positive thing to be a Conservative.
“Everything we're doing is very, very public. Mark Littlewood, who's leading the movement, wrote an article saying what it's about. I've been very open about my Conservative values for years and years and years and what we want is we want other people to join us.”
Asked how she would feel if she were PM and a group like this was set up, she said: “What I found when I was in Number 10 and when I was a minister, is that although we wanted to achieve policy goals, like reducing immigration, like cutting taxes, too often the bureaucracy was against us.
“Too often there were external forces that were against us. So what we need to do is actually change the bureaucracy, change the mood music, the weather, but also we need to restore the importance of Parliament. We need to restore the importance of democratic decision-making because there's too much decision-making being made by people who aren't accountable.
“You know, we saw that on the Post Office scandal. We've seen it with the Environment Agency, the OBR. So this is about returning the decision-making to politicians because ultimately politicians can be voted out. If people don't like what politicians do. They've got a choice at the ballot box. Whereas if it's one of these unaccountable bodies, how on earth do we change things?
“We're a grassroots movement. So this is all about making the Conservative argument across the country. And I think to be frank Conservatives have been on the backfoot for some time in making those arguments.
“It's not about the Government. It's about society. It's about the Conservative Party. It's about where we go from here. But to make, to my mind, the values that people in Britain believe in need to be reflected more in our public discourse.
“Part of what we want to do today is to get these ideas adopted in the Conservative manifesto, because it's not enough just to change our policies. It's not enough just to say we want to cut immigration, we want to cut taxes.
“We need to show people how we're going to do it and in order to do that we do need to change the bureaucracy. We do need to empower government and politicians to be able to deliver on this.”
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