Former prime minister Liz Truss to urge West to ‘get real’ about China threat in political comeback speech
Liz Truss will warn of a “global battle between free societies and dictatorships” in a speech in the US designed to revive her economic and political agenda.
The former prime minister is due to make a speech in which she will question whether Western democracies – including the UK – are currently “match fit to take on China” and the “whole concept of state capitalism”.
Ms Truss, who currently sits on the Conservative backbenches following a short-lived period as prime minister, will criticise Western governments for “appeasing” autocratic regimes in China and Russia and will argue that more needs to be done to protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression.
She is expected to make the comments at the Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture at the Heritage Foundation thinktank in Washington DC on Wednesday.
Ms Truss has kept a relatively low profile since she was ousted as Tory leader after just 44 days in office following Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget, which spooked the markets and led to an increase in some mortgage rates.
But in recent months she has sought to defend the central plan of her leadership bid – economic growth and low taxes.
Her speech comes on the same day Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey is due to address the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the US capital.
The IMF struck a decidedly gloomy tone with its most recent assessment of the global economy on Tuesday, warning that it was entering a “perilous phase” of low economic growth and high financial risk.
Read more:
Man denies sending offensive email to Labour deputy leader
Tory MP confirms he will not seek re-election
The fund downgraded its outlook for global growth and said its medium-term forecast for economic output was now at its weakest level since it began publishing forecasts in 1990.
In her speech, Ms Truss is expected to say that her preferred model of “low taxes, limited government and private enterprise” have been overtaken by larger government – which she branded a “disease”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Military analyst Sean Bell examines French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to China, joined by President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to speak with Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
She will also argue against Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) plans for a minimum 15% corporation tax rate for multinational companies – something she said was “nothing short of a global cartel of complacency”.
She will argue that the “Anglo-American” economic model of individualism is being “strangled into stagnation” by authoritarian regimes and their “unwitting allies in the anti-growth movement”.
“The symptoms are low growth, rising living costs and declining value of wages,” she will say. “The disease is ever larger government. And we have to ask ourselves: are we still match fit to take on China and to take on the whole concept of state capitalism?
“The sad truth is that we have seen stagnation, redistributionism and woke culture taking hold in businesses and the economy in the UK and the US. It results in more tax, more subsidies, more regulation.”
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
The former prime minister, who was also foreign secretary from 2021 to 2022, will also criticise the West for giving “succour to authoritarian regimes which do not share our values”:
She will single out a decision by French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to visit Beijing in an attempt to persuade Xi Jinping to promote an end to the war in Ukraine as an example.
“Putin and Xi have made it clear they are allies against Western capitalism.
“That is why Western leaders visiting President Xi to ask for his support in ending the war is a mistake. And it is a sign of weakness.
“Instead our energies should go into taking more measures to support Taiwan. We need to make sure Taiwan is able to defend itself. We need to put economic pressure on China before it is too late.”
The lawyer of a high-profile Gazan doctor detained by Israel since last December has spoken of her shock over his condition after being allowed a rare visit to see him in jail.
Ghaid Qassem has told Sky News that Dr Hussam Abu Safiya – the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza – survives on very little food, including two spoonfuls of rice a day and has lost a third of his body weight. She said he has been subjected to severe beatings.
“As a young woman, seeing an older man – a respected doctor like Hussam Abu Safiya – broken in front of me, degraded, surrounded by prison guards, in the worst possible condition, how am I supposed to feel?” she said.
“The conditions of his detention are extremely harsh, inhumane, with continuous assaults.
“This is the sixth time he has been brutally attacked.
“The most recent incident was on 24 June 24, which coincided with the end of Israel‘s war with Iran and the strike on Soroka Hospital in Beersheba [Israel].
“It seems the prison authorities decided to take revenge. They raided Abu Safiya’s cell and began assaulting him.
“He was beaten, sustaining bruises on his head, neck, and back. Afterwards, he requested medical treatment because he felt abnormal heartbeats, but his request was denied.”
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya (centre) with his colleagues. Pic: Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital
Ghaid Qassem
It is thought that since his detention Dr Abu Safiya has been held at a number of Israeli jails.
His lawyer said she was allowed access to meet with him at Ofer prison, near Jerusalem.
Ms Qassem said there was no proper healthcare or hygiene and it is claimed the paediatrician is being held in an underground cell.
“They can’t shower, their clothes aren’t replaced, not even underwear,” she said. “Scabies is rampant, skin diseases are widespread and the most basic medical attention is only given when they see you’re on the verge of death.”
Dr Abu Safiya was last seen in Gaza, wearing his white doctor’s coat as he walked through the rubble outside his hospital towards an Israeli tank in December 2024.
This is believed to be one of the last sightings of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya before he was detained
Before then he had become a well-known voice and face of the Kamal Adwan hospital, sharing videos about the siege of the medical facility and explaining how staff were struggling to continue working under Israeli bombardment.
The hospital has since been forced to close down.
Oneg Ben Dror, from Physicians for Human Rights Israel, told Sky News they believe Dr Abu Safiya is one of more than a 100 medical professionals from Gaza currently being detained in Israeli jails.
Oneg Ben Dror, from Physicians for Human Rights Israel
She said: “We know that more than 250 health care workers were arrested since the start of the war on Gaza.
“Part of them were released, and more than 100 are still detained. We have their names, and we managed to visit dozens of them while in detention.
“All those we met weren’t charged officially with any offence.
“We asked them about the interrogation and all of them said the questions they were asked weren’t about them or a specific offence.
“It was more information gathering about their workplace and people they knew and this is against international law arresting them while doing their job and holding them for intelligence gathering and as bargaining chips for a potential deal.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Doctors on the frontline
A spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service (IPS) said: “All prisoners are detained according to the law. All basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.
“We are not aware of the claims you described, and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility.
“Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”
Dr Abu Safiya’s colleague, Dr Eid Sabbah, head of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, told Sky News more than 30 medical staff from the hospital have been killed during the conflict.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and Dr Eid Sabbah, worked together in Gaza. Pic: Dr Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan Hospital
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
He said: “We pray to God to give Dr Abu Safiya strength, to ease his suffering soon, and to see him free – just like the rest of our people, our patients, our wounded, and all the doctors who were detained from this hospital.
“He is in a very difficult situation. The news we are hearing is troubling and far from reassuring.
“He was the kind of doctor who took bold stands for his colleague. At the same time, he never abandoned his patients, even under extreme pressure.
“Despite calls urging him to evacuate the hospital for his own safety, he refused to leave. He stayed by his patients’ sides, fully committed to serving them – especially the children, the elderly, the women, and the injured.”
An aid worker in the central Gaza Strip has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is “absolutely desperate” and “the worst it’s ever been”.
Her comments to Sky’s chief presenter Mark Austin come amid fresh international outcry over Israel’s restrictions on aid, as the UK has joined together with 24 other countries to say: “The war in Gaza must end now.”
Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, is in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement.
Middle East latest: Key points from UK statement on Gaza
She said: “One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, ‘We are all walking together towards death’. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza.
“There is no food for their children, it’s absolutely desperate here.”
Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. Pic: Reuters
“The markets are empty,” she said. “People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables.
“My team have said to me, ‘There’s nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day.”
Israel launched a ground assault on Deir al Balah on Monday morning, another charity said earlier.
Smoke rises during strikes amid the Israeli operation in Deir al Balah. Pic: Reuters
Ms Cummings’s comments came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire.
The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation.
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” it said.
The 25 countries also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks.
Lammy promises £40m for Gaza aid
Foreign Secretary David Lammy later promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
He told MPs: “We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area.
“Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Lammy: ‘There must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state’
Addressing the foreign secretaries’ joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock – who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza – told Sky News: “While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed.
“In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can’t get worse, it does.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
“Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response,” she said.
“And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we’re trying to serve.
“An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve.”
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
In recent weeks hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed while waiting for food and aid.
The Israeli military has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.
At least 19 people have died after a Bangladesh air force plane crashed into a college campus, the military said.
The aircraft crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Uttara, in the northern area of the capital Dhaka, where students were taking tests or attending regular classes.
The pilot was one of the people killed, and, according to the military, 164 were injured in the incident.
The Bangladesh military’s public relations department added that the aircraft was an F-7 BGI, and had taken off at 1.06pm local time before crashing shortly after.
Video shows fire and smoke rising from the crash site, with hundreds looking on.
Pics: Reuters
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Bengali-language daily newspaper Prothom Alo said that most of the injured were students with burn injuries.
Pics: Reuters
Citing the duty officer at the fire service control room, Prothom Alo also reported that the plane had crashed on the roof of the college canteen.
Read more from Sky News:
Police search for missing woman last seen at petrol station
Six arrests after nearly 250 children poisoned by lead in food
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Rafiqa Taha, a 16-year-old student at the school who was not present at the time of the crash, told the Associated Press that the school has around 2,000 students.
“I was terrified watching videos on TV,” she added. “My God! It’s my school.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike