Liz Truss is talking to the room – not the country. And that doesn’t win elections

The speech suddenly lurched to rhetorical nonsense like ‘anti-growth coalition’, three words which are utterly meaningless for most people, writes Salma Shah

Of course, Boris Johnson’s triumphant show was always destined for a lacklustre encore (AFP/Getty)

Conventional wisdom dictates that British elections have to be won from the centre ground, expanding out. Pushing from the right has always been electorally limiting. But of course, conventional wisdom is for unpatriotic “declinists” in this regime.

If history will not serve as a warning, perhaps the government would like to take a look at More in Common and Public First’s research which has detailed the segments of voters that built the Tory voter coalition of 2019. It shows that the Conservatives continually grew their vote share in successive elections by capturing more and more of the centre, whilst simultaneously preventing fractures on the right. Despite outward appearances, the Tories were always getting stronger.

Of course, Boris Johnson’s triumphant show was always destined for a lacklustre encore, but at the very least, the current PM should consider looking beyond her base to secure that ultimate political unicorn, a fifth term.