Protester runs out as Liz Truss nears stage and urges people to cancel energy payments
An energy protester interrupted Liz Truss as she walked onto a stage at the final Tory leadership hustings in London.
The man, wearing a dark suit, was pictured holding a sign as the potential Tory leader strode out at Wembley Arena to Taylor Swift ’s Change.
He was holding a placard reading Don’t Pay UK, as the protest group of the same name later claimed responsibility.
The group, which has amassed a huge following in a short time, wrote on Twitter : “Tory Party hustings disrupted tonight!
“With Liz Truss likely to become the new PM, she has ruled out further windfall tax on the multi-billion profits of the oil and gas generators.
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Tom Bowles / Story Picture Agency)
“Enough is Enough – Don’t Pay!”
The group is urging people to cancel their direct debits to energy firms on October 1 in protest of the soaring prices.
So far they say more than 130,000 people have agreed to take part in the action.
The group wrote in a press release: “In Britain, even the puny aid comes with conditions.
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Tom Bowles / Story Picture Agency)
“By working together with energy companies to make even the government “assistance” a way to force us into paying even more, they are showing how important it is for people to take collective action together.
“This reveals how worried they are about the prospect of large numbers of people joining together to refuse to pay, and reinforces how important it is that we work locally to hit that goal.
“Unlike the government scheme, our demands don’t rely on subsidising highly profitable companies from the public purse.
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PA)
“Our tax money shouldn’t go towards keeping afloat the failing energy companies that have ripped us off for so long.
“Our bills need to come down to an affordable level, which can only be done by resetting the cap and using the obscene profits made by energy producers to cover the cost.
“This is just the beginning of a conversation about how we can reconfigure the broken energy market to serve our needs.”
Earlier campaigners urged Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to set out how they would restore trust in British politics after Boris Johnson’s “lack of honesty”.
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NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
In a letter co-signed by 15 pro-democracy groups including Unlock Democracy and the Electoral Reform Society, the two Tory leadership contenders were warned trust in politicians had been “severely dented” in the decade since the expenses scandal.
Last month Liz Truss was heckled by protesters shouting “shame on you” during a speech at a Tory hustings in Eastbourne.
Young activists, believed to be from the Green New Deal Rising Group, heckled Ms Truss over climate change and energy bills .
One protester, Fatima Ibrahim, shouted: “Shame on you!”
