Politics

Liz Truss's conference speech interrupted by Greenpeace protesters holding 'who voted for this' sign

Liz Truss's conference speech interrupted by Greenpeace protesters holding 'who voted for this' sign
Greenpeace protesters removed from Tory party conference during Liz Truss speech
IndependentTV

Liz Truss’ first Conservative Party Conference speech as prime minister wasn’t exactly the smoothest, after hecklers from the environmental campaign group Greenpeace interrupted the address with a sign reading “who voted for this?”

The protesters were booed by audience members as others rose to applaud Ms Truss, who acknowledged the individuals by saying “let’s get them removed”.

After security escorted the activists out of the conference hall, the Tory party leader added: “I am going to talk about the anti-growth coalition, but I think they arrived a bit too early.”

Ms Truss walked onto the stage in Birmingham to “Moving On Up” by M People. Her government has come under intense scrutiny in recent days, after chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was forced to make a screeching U-turn on plans to scrap the 45p rate of income tax following a tank in the British pound.

She also ditched a ban on fracking – the controversial mining procedure which was stopped amid fears of earthquakes – last week.

Of course, the stunt by Greenpeace soon took over Twitter, with many praising the group’s actions:

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Confirming the protest, Greenpeace wrote on Twitter that the interruption was about them denouncing Ms Truss "shredding her party's 2019 manifesto promises".

"The PM is U-turning on fracking, strong climate action, and world-leading environmental protections. Who voted for this," they said.

It isn’t the first time that a Conservative party leader has had their keynote conference speech interrupted by an audience member, as prankster Simon Brodkin – best known for his character Lee Nelson – walked up to give Theresa May a P45 in October 2017.

He claimed Boris Johnson, who would later succeed her as prime minister, had asked him to hand it to her.

The same speech also saw Ms May suffer a tickly throat, and letters from the ‘Building a Country That Works For Everyone’ slogan behind her fall off the wall.

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