Buoyant Labour think Truss’s ‘scorched earth’ approach can pave their way to power

Delegates beginning to believe that Tory missteps will put Keir Starmer in Downing Street

Liz Truss appears to be taking a “scorched earth” approach to the economy which will leave a Labour government to pick up the pieces after the election expected in 2024, a shadow cabinet minister has said.

As stock markets sank and the pound plunged in the wake of last week’s “kamikaze” mini-Budget, delegates at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool could scarcely believe their luck at the apparent willingness of the prime minister and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to take a hatchet to their own party’s biggest electoral assets.

And there was a growing sense of confidence among them that opinion polls giving Keir Starmer’s party leads of up to 17 points over the Conservatives could presage a remarkable return to power just five years after Labour’s crushing defeat in 2019.