Truss: 'We’re one of the best countries in the world to be black, a woman or LGBT'
3 October 2021, 15:37 | Updated: 3 October 2021, 16:15
Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, has told the Conservative Party conference that the UK is "one of the best countries in the world to be black, a woman or LGBT".
She told delegates in her first speech as newly appointed Foreign Secretary that she will make it her mission to end the "abhorrent use of sexual violence in wars around the world".
She later added: "We’re one of the best countries in the world to be black, a woman or LGBT."
Her comments come in the wake of the sentencing of Met police officer Wayne Couzens, who was handed a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in London.
Ms Truss did not address the issue of violence against women, except to say she intends to combat female genital mutilation and the use of sexual violence in wars around the world.
In her address, Ms Truss quoted former PM Margaret Thatcher, saying: "The message is clear, when people are free to choose they choose freedom."
Setting out her vision for foreign policy, she said: "We will have a positive patriotic, proactive foreign policy that expands our trade routes, strengthens our security partnerships and supports development."
"Britain has always be a load star of freedom and democracy. But these freedoms need to be advanced particularly at a time of immense global change.
"The democratic world order faces a stark choice.
"Either we retreat and retrench in the face of malign actors, or we club together and we advance the cause of freedom.
"We need to rise to meet this moment."
Read more: PM won't rule out Christmas shortages saying it's up to industries to solve supply crisis
Foreign Secretary challenges Labour
She went on to say: "The freer a country is the wealthier it is. The more secure it is, the greener it is.
"It’s less likely to harbour terrorists and radical fundamentalists, it’s less likely to have huge outflows of immigration, and it’s less likely to go to war."
She added: "This is the Britain I want us to be. Patriotic and positive."
Read more: Turkey shortages: Meat industry forced to go 'cold turkey' without EU labour
Separately, she took aim at Labour's "moral relativism", and says the Tories "reject the zero-sum game of identity politics" and the "illiberalism of cancel culture".
Prior to her speech, Ms Truss rejected the assertion the criminal justice system was "institutionally misogynistic" at a fringe event.
"I wouldn't use those words", she told the Telegraph Chopper's Politics podcast event.
"But what I would say is, as a woman, I do find walking home at night concerning.
"I don't like that air of concern. I do think, as women generally, we are more fearful of going out and that is fundamentally wrong.
"It's something we have to change about our society."
Read more: Officers should not be re-vetted in wake of Everard murder, police chief tells LBC
