Liz Truss, who aspires to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and the British Government, attacks the work culture of her compatriots, who should “work more”, in a leaked conversation on Tuesday. “There is a fundamental problem in the relationship with work” in the United Kingdom, says Liz Truss, foreign minister of the outgoing government, in this recording published by the newspaper The Guardian on your website.
“If we want to become a richer and more prosperous country, that has to change. But I don’t think people are ready to do that,” she adds, in this conversation that dates according to the newspaper from the time when she was number two in Treasury, from 2017 to 2019.
This recording was released just before a televised meeting organized by the Conservative Party in Perth, Scotland, during which Liz Truss and her latest rival for the party leadership, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, will meet with activist questions. Referring in particular to the Brexit vote in 2016, Liz Truss remarks that “we say that it is Europe that causes these big problems, that it is immigrants”. “But what you have to do is try harder. It’s not a popular message,” we still hear him say.
“In China it’s very different”
For her, the lower productivity of the British results “in part from a state of mind and an attitude. It is a matter of work culture, in fact. In China it is very different, I can assure you.” Contacted by AFP on Tuesday, Liz Truss’s campaign team did not deny the authenticity of these statements, which however, according to her, “lack context”.
“There is a need to increase productivity, which leads to better pay and a better quality of life for workers across the UK,” the source said. The release of the recording comes as Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are campaigning for the votes of Conservative activists – some 200,000 – who have until September 2 to elect their new leader in a mail-in ballot.
Since the party has a majority in parliament, the winner will become prime minister, replacing Boris Johnson, who resigned in early July after multiple scandals. Mrs. Truss is way ahead in the polls. The announcement of the result is scheduled for September 5.
Source: BFM TV
