Liz Truss has been appearing in some strange places since leaving Downing Street, but none stranger than an obscure internet channel of far-right content creators.
The former prime minister — who is standing again in her seat of South West Norfolk — was interviewed on the Lotus Eaters, an online network of conspiratorial influencers where she plugged her book, Ten Years to Save the West.
Lotus Eaters was created by Carl Benjamin, a far-right commentator and failed UKIP candidate, who once told the Labour MP Jess Phillips: “I wouldn’t even rape you”, but later added: “With enough pressure, I might cave.” He is notorious for using racial slurs in his videos, calling people “faggots” and “a bunch of n*****s”. Benjamin has spoken numerous times at Traditional Britain Group meetings, a far-right organisation that advocates for the “repatriation” of non-white British citizens.
Truss spoke to Connor Tomlinson, a talking head on the Lotus Eaters, who has pushed the great replacement conspiracy theory that shadowy elites are coordinating the mass migration of Asians and Africans to subvert Western society.
In his interview with Truss broadcast on May 29th, Tomlinson did not mention the great replacement — however, he did ask the former prime minister if she thought Britain should be “more discriminatory” against “countries and cultures which may… present problems to assimilation”.
Truss responded: “I think we should do it on a country by country basis.”
Truss, in addition to promoting her book, railed against her usual targets: the civil service, the “liberal media”, “degrowthers”, the Bank of England, and the Climate Change Act.
In response to a question from Tomlinson that mentioned leftwing activism and HOPE not hate, Truss called for “a more aggressive approach”, adding: “Our enemies will try and smear us and label us and we have to take them on… These people are not well-meaning, they want to destroy our society.”
Tomlinson also asked Truss for her take on Palestinian refugees potentially coming to the UK, and how to cope with “hundreds of thousands of people who have a very hostile view towards Britain.”
“We shouldn’t let it happen,” replied Truss, before launching into a rant against the Labour Party being “in hock to very left-wing activists who are pro-Hamas. They’re pro-terrorist, they’re antisemitic, they’re anti-Israel”.
Truss’s comments about antisemitism were unfortunately timed. During her broadcast on Lotus Eaters, members were sharing unrelated conspiracy theories in the live chat box about Jews “funding antisemitism”. Another comment said Jews were being “hoisted by their own canard”. A Lotus Eater admin had to close the chat function partway through the show, claiming it had been “infiltrated”.
The great replacement, split loyalties, and open antisemitism
The appearance of Liz Truss on the Lotus Eaters raises further serious questions about her judgement. Her comments about sinister forces operating within British society to destroy it are especially ironic given the output of the very media outlet she appeared on.
Her interviewer, Connor Tomlinson, posted last month: “The Great Replacement isn’t a White supremacist antisemitic conspiracy theory. It’s real.” In a recent article, Tomlinson claimed that “the erasure of native cultures through demographic change” is underway.
Tomlinson has participated in previous Lotus Eater shows about the need to raise a white racial consciousness in Britain. On a recent programme, his co-presenter Harry Robinson said: “The white British population are the political threat… If we start to organise as a political bloc, for our own interests, we’re much more of a threat to them and their position within society.”
Tomlinson replied: “Quite, I couldn’t put it any better than that.”
In an article on the Lotus Eaters website, Tomlinson suggested non-white politicians had split loyalties. “It is not ‘fair’ for murderers, rapists, and paedophiles to be spared deportation because they share a skin colour with the MPs lobbying on their behalf,” he wrote.
Discussions on the Lotus Eaters regularly descend into open bigotry and occasionally veer into antisemitism. Take this exchange on 23rd February 2023, which referred to the Jewish American commentator Jon Stewart, who at the time had compared the cleanliness of the New York and Moscow subways — making the point that cleaner Russian public transport was not worth the price of living under Vladimir Putin.
Stelios Panagiotou: “He literally says that filth is the price of freedom.”
Connor Tomlinson: “Abdul crapping on your doorstep means that you’re free? God bless America!”
Harry Robinson: “Why would Mr Leibowitz say this?”
Robinson emphasised Jon Stewart’s Jewish family name to seemingly reference the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews are trying to sabotage western society with mass immigration. Neither of Robinson’s co-hosts challenged him.
The staff of Lotus Eaters often describe their conspiratorial fantasies that shadowy elites are trying to undermine the west.
According to Harry Robinson, a Lotus Eaters presenter:
“They want us to be overrun and it’s becoming more and more clear — we’ll just outright say it — they want us to become minorities in our own countries so we can have who knows how many Mohammeds deciding that we’re not giving them enough and start stabbing people indiscriminately on the street.”
Harry Robinson, Lotus Eaters presenter, 10 March 2023
Beau Dade, another Lotus Eaters staffer, was deselected as a parliamentary candidate for Reform after HOPE not hate uncovered his comments calling for Britain to “rid itself of the foreign plague we have been diseased with”.
Liz Truss’s decision to appear on the Lotus Eaters marks a dispiriting new low. Since leaving office, she has shared a platform with the alt-right media guru Steve Bannon during which he described Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, as a “hero”. She went on to suggest that the deep state tanked her government, rather than her own ill-conceived economic policies. In April, Truss appeared on GB News to say Enoch Powell had “a point” on immigration.
After HOPE not hate broke the news about Truss’s Lotus Eaters appearance, the Labour MP Jess Phillips called on the Conservative Party to ditch her as a candidate. “If you have any decency,” she wrote in a letter to Rishi Sunak, “you will deselect Liz Truss.”
It is inconceivable for an MP to appear on the Lotus Eaters and still expect to be taken seriously in parliament. Truss must be immediately suspended from the Conservative Party.
We are raising funds to launch a Radical Right Monitoring Unit. With full-time researchers and the latest technology, we will proactively uncover, unmask, and hold accountable figures of hate.
Please contribute to this vital work.
When voters go to the polls on July 4th, they will choose between a record number of candidates. This year, 4,515 people are contesting parliamentary…
