Liz Truss rounds on Welsh first minister after stinging critique of Nicola Sturgeon

Conservative party leadership candidate Liz Truss has described Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford as a “low energy version of Jeremy Corbyn” days after criticising Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon.

Ms Truss lambasted Mr Drakeford during a hustings event in Cardiff on Wednesday evening.

It comes after she said Ms Sturgeon was an “attention seeker” who is “best ignored” on Monday.

During the event in Wales, Ms Truss said: “The fact is there are too many people in this country who are ashamed of our history, who talk our country down, who say the best days are behind us. They are completely wrong. I’m afraid one of them is Mark Drakeford.”

Referring to his decision in 2019 to scrap the M4 relief road, a dual three-lane motorway south of Newport which was proposed to relieve congestion, she added: “Whether it’s stopping the M4 relief road, whether it’s whacking a tax on our tourist industry, I will crack down on his negativity about Wales and about the United Kingdom.

“With delivering for people on the ground, with making a real difference to people’s lives, we will be able to take on the plastic patriot Sir Keir Starmer and we’ll be able to take on the low energy version of Jeremy Corbyn that is Mark Drakeford.”

[ Liz Truss is set to be next UK PM - which means a trade war with EU is almost inevitable ]

Mr Drakeford previously said his cabinet had decided not to back the M4 project due to demands on the Welsh government’s budgets and its financial position, saying the cost involved “was not acceptable”.

Ms Truss also lashed out at “the media” for having “misinterpreted” her £8.8 billion (€10.5 billion) policy pledge to cut the public sector wage bill by paying workers in cheaper areas of the country less than in more expensive parts.

In the first turbulence of her campaign, she was forced to abandon the proposal after furious Tory colleagues warned it would lead to a “levelling down” of the nation.

Under questioning during the hustings in Cardiff, Ms Truss insisted the plan was never intended to apply to doctors, nurses and teachers.

Asked who had got the policy wrong, she replied: “The media.”

Javid backs Truss

Meanwhile, former chancellor Sajid Javid has thrown his support behind Ms Truss’s leadership bid, saying Rishi Sunak’s more cautious tax plans would see the nation “sleepwalking” into a “high-tax, low-growth” economy.

The announcement came after Ms Truss’s campaign was boosted by two surveys giving her overwhelming leads over Mr Sunak as they face off to become the next prime minister.

She won a 34-percentage point lead over Mr Sunak in a YouGov poll of party members, before a survey for the ConservativeHome website released on Wednesday put her 32 ahead.

Mr Javid, whose resignation as health secretary minutes before Mr Sunak quit as chancellor triggered the cascade that forced Boris Johnson to resign, then threw his support behind the frontrunner.

The failed leadership candidate said “tax cuts now are essential” as Mr Sunak resists adopting Ms Truss’s more radical plan, saying he must get to grips with spiralling inflation first. — PA