UK PM Liz Truss pledges to get country through 'stormy days'

London: British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Wednesday promised to get the country through "stormy days", as she launched a blistering attack on the "anti-growth coalition" trying to hold back her pro-growth agenda.

In her speech to the Tory conference, which has been marked by U-turns and deep internal division, Truss admitted that the policies of her government would cause "disruption".

At the same time, she said "the status quo is not an option" and "we must stay the course".

"I have fought to get where I am today," the 47-year-old prime minister said, highlighting how the barriers she had faced as a woman "made me angry and it made me determined".

Her 35-minute speech came against a backdrop of financial and political turmoil following the government's mini-budget last month. Her address was briefly interrupted by environmental protesters from Greenpeace, holding up a sign reading "who voted for this".

Truss acknowledged "these are stormy days", citing the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

But she added: "I'm determined to get Britain moving, to get us through the tempest and to put us on a stronger footing as a nation."

Truss also vowed to take on the "anti-growth coalition" and "enemies of enterprise", including opposition parties, "militant unions" and environmental campaigners - like the ones, she said, who heckled during her speech.

She 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".

She also accused her enemies of preferring to "talk on Twitter" than take tough decisions, and of taxiing "from north London townhouses to the BBC studio to dismiss anyone challenging the status quo".