Liz Truss is unashamed about a plan that will hit even the middle classes hard. But her party’s drift away from them began long ago
As Liz Truss stumbled through last week’s disastrous round of interviews with local radio stations, Basingstoke’s United Reformed church was giving away bread. Loaves donated by local supermarkets were arranged on a set of metal shelves covered by a tarpaulin. Every so often, someone would gingerly walk up and help themselves, before turning their attention to the hot food that was also available: soup, risotto and stew, cooked by a group of spirited volunteers. They told me that the town’s levels of need were suddenly increasing fast, and they were now feeding whole families.
A few yards away, I met Peter. Now retired, he had worked for the telecoms giant Motorola, a once-sizeable local employer that closed its Basingstoke operation in 2017. Rocketing bills, he told me, meant he was now limiting himself to two hours of TV a night, rationing lighting, keeping his heating off, and wearing sweaters and fleeces whenever he was indoors. Among the items in his shopping bag was a baguette he had got from the church.
