UK: Liz Truss Speech Disrupted by Greenpeace Protestors

Facts

• Two protesters from the environmental campaign group Greenpeace disrupted UK PM Liz Truss's first speech since taking office. During her address to the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday, the demonstrators interrupted and held up a banner reading: 'Who voted for this?'¹
• The disruption, just as the PM said she wasn't prepared to 'consign our great country to decline,' prompted booing from the audience right before the pair were escorted from the conference hall by security.²
• Greenpeace later confirmed on Twitter that activists had protested during Truss's speech 'to denounce the prime minister 'shredding' her party's 2019 manifesto promises.' During the interruption, the two shouted slogans, including, 'who voted for fracking?'³
• Following the protesters' removal, Truss continued with her speech, later criticizing 'Labour, the Lib Dems ... the Brexit deniers, Extinction Rebellion, and some of the people we had in the hall earlier,' among others, saying that 'they prefer protesting to doing.'⁴
• Paul Miner, director of campaigns and policy at the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, responded to Truss's comments on the protesters: 'It's not eco-protestors organizing the resistance to fracking, it's ordinary people who are furious at what they see as a litany of betrayal and broken promises.'⁵

Sources: ¹CNN, ²The Times, ³Reuters, ⁴The Telegraph and ⁵Guardian.

Narratives

• Right narrative, as provided by Daily Mail. Ami McCarthy, who shouted at and heckled the PM during her maiden speech, has a history of offering unsubstantiated, woke commentary, including allegations that the British Army 'killed civilians' and 'ruined the world.' It's unsurprising that McCarthy would seek to undermine the PM — though Truss ultimately dealt admirably with the disruption.
• Left narrative, as provided by Guardian. Liz Truss has abandoned her party's green manifesto pledge and the voters that supported it. Amid a chaotic series of policy U-turns and economic turmoil in recent days, the PM's mediocre speech was overshadowed by a moment of democratic protest. Despite her attempts to distract with rhetorical references to growth, voters are more concerned about the impacts of Truss's policies on the cost of living crisis and fracking in their local communities.