'They don't think she's competent': Nick Ferrari grills Conservative Party Chairman on how colleagues see Liz Truss

6 October 2022, 8:54 | Updated: 7 October 2022, 13:36

By Sam Sholli

Nick Ferrari has put to Jake Berry that many of his colleagues would "love to see" Liz Truss "get going out of the door of Number 10".

The exchange between Nick and Mr Berry has come one day after Liz Truss delivered her Conservative Party Conference speech.

Nick asked Mr Berry: "How divided is the Conservative Party?"

In response, the Conservative Party Chairman said: "Well, I can't really tell you because lots of people who talk about the party being divided talk about anonymous briefings to journalists.

"So you're probably placed than me because they are anonymous.

"But what I would say is that - you know - I think colleagues saw yesterday that when the going gets tough the Truss gets going.

"And in an absolutely brilliant speech I think she has set out a plan that colleagues across the Conservative Party...they can get behind and I would urge them to get behind."

Nick said to Mr Berry: "Many of your colleagues would love to see her get going out of the door of Number 10. They don't think she's competent. They don't think she's up to it.

"Even some serving ministers actually say that her policies aren't right.

"And we wake up to Nadine Dorries, who very recently was in the Cabinet, saying you must U-turn or face an election wipeout."

In response, Mr Berry said: "Yes, I've seen that article by Nadine."

Mr Berry said he's "quite good friends" with the former Culture Secretary and described her as a "very fine individual".

However, he went on to say: "But quite a lot of what we have done hasn't been just about cutting people's taxes...Quite a lot of it is action on energy bills.

"I'm not sure that Nadine Dorries would like to see, you know, energy bills go up to £6,000 per household. Because of the action we have taken, they will now on average be £2,500.

"We have of course cancelled the increase in corporation tax...I think when businesses face a really tough winter ahead of them, the one thing they really don't need when we're asking them to support families, make those investments, give people those pay rises...is a 6% increase in business taxes."

Having started that he's seen "some of the comments by Nadine", Mr Berry said: "I don't understand some of them, and some of them I don't agree with."