Support Sunak or 'shut up', Truss told by Tory grandees

Tory grandees have launched an extraordinary attack on former prime minister Liz Truss amid fears her appearance at their party conference will undermine Rishi Sunak's electoral prospects. One said their ex-party leader should back the prime minister or "shut up", adding she had "zero credibility".

- KATE DEVLIN, ARCHIE MITCHELL

Mr Sunak is hoping to use the event in Manchester to convince voters he is the man to solve the UK’s problems. But senior Tories fear Ms Truss will instead remind the public of the economic chaos that defined her less than two months in office. Ms Truss will speak at a “growth rally” at the conference, aimed at pushing Mr Sunak on tax cuts. Dubbed the Great British Growth Rally, organisers are already planning for a large turnout.

But Ms Truss’s plans have triggered fury among senior Tories, coming as they do when the party is facing a potentially disastrous electoral defeat next year. Former minister Sir Alan Duncan told The Independent: “Liz Truss should back the prime minister or shut up. She has zero credibility and making unhelpful speeches is no way for a former prime minister to behave.”

Asked about Ms Truss, the former chancellor Lord Hammond said: “I definitely think that people who have done their stint and moved on should not use the conference to disrupt.”