Liz Truss' Portsmouth visit: What her plans are for Russia, businesses, farming, economy and immigration

Downing Street hopeful Liz Truss visited Portsmouth last Friday in her ongoing campaign to beat Rishi Sunak to the government's top job.

While she did not answer any questions from The News, she did give a speech directly to Conservative members.

She said: 'I didn't come from a traditional Conservative background - what I found at my school is that people had been let down, firstly by low expectations but also by the left-wing Labour council who preferred political correctness to teaching children English and maths.

'I want everybody to have opportunities whatever their background, for us to be an aspiration nation. Now is the time to do things differently. We have to be bold and we have to get our economy growing.

'What I would do, first of all, is make sure we get all of the EU regulations off our statute books by 2023 to drive investment and procurement. I would also reverse the national insurance rise - giving people more money back in their own pockets - and have a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy, so fuel bills can be decreased and help people with the difficult cost of living issues.’

Truss also pledged to keep corporation tax low to support small businesses and the self-employed.

She also promised to ‘level up’ with low-tax investment zones and simplified planning rules.

She said: ‘The planning system doesn’t work - I would abolish the top-down housing targets and instead allow local people to drive what’s important in their area.

‘I also want to back our fantastic farmers, that means fields full of crops and livestock rather than solar panels and other paraphernalia.’

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The South West Norfolk MP was invited to the Queen's Hotel in Southsea by Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt, who was previously in the running for prime minister but is now backing Liz Truss' campaign.

On defence, Truss said: ‘We do face a huge threat from Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

‘We're going up to three per cent of our GDP on defence by the end of this decade. Portsmouth of course has a very important role in that.

‘We also need to make sure we're defending against illegal immigration. I was proud to work with Priti Patel on the Rwanda scheme - I want to extend it to more countries and I want to legislate in the bill of rights that we cannot be overruled by the European Court of Human Rights.

‘I’m a plain-speaking Yorkshirewoman and I'm very clear that a woman is a woman and I will protect single-sex spaces such as domestic violence shelters. We need to empower women and also need to be proud of our country and all we've contributed to the world and of our history, warts and all.

‘We need to make the case that the best days of our country are ahead of us, not behind us.’