LIZ TRUSS spent years carefully preparing Thatcher-style photo ops to maximise her appeal to the Tory base. Just weeks into her new government, it is clear she intends to govern like Thatcher too.

Her new Cabinet is one of the most right wing in modern history. Could there be anyone worse in charge of workers’ rights and key climate policies than Jacob Rees-Mogg?  

New Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng once co-authored a book along with Truss labelling British workers as “among the worst idlers in the world.” As Home Secretary Suella Braverman seems determined to out-right even Priti Patel on bashing migrants and undermining human rights.  

If allowed to get away with it, Truss’s Tories will use the next period to drive through a blitz of policies taken straight from the right-wing think tanks Truss has cosied up to over recent years.  

Already we have seen tax cuts announced benefiting the richest, an assault on workers’ rights, a new push for fossil fuels in the North Sea and an end to the cap on bankers’ bonuses. This is just the start. It is a full-throated recommitment to neoliberalism.

Driving up corporate profits and not meeting people’s needs nor our climate obligations, will be the guiding star of this government.

To try to deflect from this real agenda we can expect a new wave of scapegoating migrants and those on benefits, more divide and rule of private and public-sector workers, and more social reaction dressed up as the “war on woke.”  

And to try to justify their economic policies, the Tories will reheat all the phoney claims that trickle-down economics will somehow benefit ordinary people.  

This is an outright lie. It is not just that wealth won’t “trickle down,” it is not designed to. The Tory Party exists to ensure wealth in society is hoovered up from the many into the hands of a few. Like Robin Hood in reverse, the Tories rob from the poor and give to the rich.

But there are two sides in the struggle and as the Tories deepen their attacks on the majority of people, trade unions and social movements are fighting back, making it clear that enough is enough.

The RMT and CWU, alongside others including the Unite dockers in Liverpool and Felixstowe, are rightly standing up to the idea that people should accept becoming ever poorer so the wealthy get ever richer.  

All the workers who have been on strike in recent weeks have my full solidarity. More are set to do so in the coming months — and across the Labour movement we need to build the widest possible support for their actions.

A victory for every striking worker is a victory for all workers against a Tory government that is using this crisis to drive wages down and profits up.  

When people do stand up to the policies of this government, it is important that across the Labour Party we stand with them. If we give workers taking strike action against pay cuts the impression that we are turning our backs on them, that sends the wrong message to millions of people. We must never allow the impression that we take certain voters for granted.  

Real change means we need the Tories out of office and a Labour government ASAP — so it is very encouraging that Labour is currently ahead in the polls. But Ed Miliband repeatedly led David Cameron and lost in 2015. Kinnock was expected to win in 1992 but lost after the Tories dumped Thatcher.  

We cannot be complacent, especially given the general election could be over two years away. As a party, we need to use every minute ahead of the next election to show people that Labour is on their side.  

Key to that is doing all we can to force the Tories to drop as much of their harmful policy agenda as possible. Because the scale of the coming storm means that people can’t wait for two years and a general election to get the protection they need from this economic crisis.

One important lesson of recent weeks is that where Labour has offered a strong lead — from the windfall tax to energy price freezes — we have forced the Tory government into making policy changes. We need to see much more of that.  

When as a party we force such changes, it provides important financial support to people who desperately need that help. It also boosts our support with millions of people who can see Labour has their backs and would deliver for them in government.

There are a whole range of other policies from public ownership of energy and other utilities to a £15-an-hour minimum wage, from rent freezes to wealth taxes on the super-rich that we should be putting forward now as popular solutions to this cost-of-living emergency. Many are becoming the new common sense with strong support in the polls — including from Tory voters.  

In contrast, under the Tory banner of “growth” all sorts of reactionary policies will be pushed. But growth for who? The Tories mean the super-rich and billionaire class. Growth in what? They mean of the same model that has led to the worst pay squeeze in 200 years and caused the global banking crisis.  

None of this is about addressing the crisis faced by millions. Labour’s robust response to this Tory “growth” narrative must be to make it totally clear that our focus will be on raising the living standards of the vast majority of people.  

Our system is going through crisis after crisis as a result of decades of neoliberalism. Truss’s attempt to turbocharge may boost the profits of the corporate elites, but millions of people will be paying the price.  

The more we put forward a real alternative to this broken model over the coming months, the better chance we have of stopping Truss’s reactionary agenda in its tracks and of ensuring she is booted out at the next general election.

Richard Burgon is MP for Leeds East.