This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the former chancellor, announced that he plans to step down at the next election. But there is still at least one senior Trussite who plans to fight on. This lunchtime Liz Truss herself appeared at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster to launch her new outfit, PopCon, a grassroots group to generate new Tory policies.

Truss argued it was time for MPs to find ‘resilience and bravery’ to start making conservative arguments

Addressing a packed room, the former prime minister criticised ‘left wing extremists’ as she took aim at Tory MPs pursuing policies that would make them popular at ‘London dinner parties’. Truss argued it was time for MPs and supporters more generally to find ‘resilience and bravery’ to start making conservative arguments: ‘I believe the fundamental issue is that for years, and years and years… Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists.’

The new group – full name ‘popular conservatism’ – is meant to serve as a place for the Tories to have policy debates and to push for the party to embrace freedom and economic liberalism, along with a socially conservative agenda. Kicking off the launch, its director Mark Littlewood was quick to insist that this isn’t about Rishi Sunak and his leadership.

Instead, he argued the outfit is focused on new policies and ideas rather than finding a new leader. In a sign that the organisers do not want to be associated with the various forces currently trying to oust Sunak, the former cabinet minister Simon Clarke was dropped as a speaker after he called publicly for Sunak to go. Meanwhile, Ranil Jayawardena – who also served in the Truss government – pulled out of the event seemingly over concerns the group appeared too critical of Sunak. Announcing his plans to give it a miss, Jayawardena repeated the government line that a vote for Labour would take the country back to square one.

The speakers at the PopCon event focused their speeches on policy. Former deputy party chairman Lee Anderson – a red wall favourite among the grassroots – said both he and his fellow speaker Jacob Rees-Mogg had one thing in common: they were both born on estates (before clarifying his was a council estate). Anderson used his speech to criticise aspects of net zero – saying a focus on it would not change the outcome in his seat and the Tories should focus on the cost of living rather than green levies on energy bills. Meanwhile, in a glimpse of what the next generation of Tory MPs could bring, Mhairi Fraser, the conservative candidate for Epsom and Ewell, criticised Sunak’s plans for a smoke free generation – suggesting it was time for the nanny state to go away.

A lot of Tory MPs are unimpressed at the existence of the group let alone the launch and see it as another unhelpful distraction as Sunak tries to turn things around. Polling by Savanta suggests that Truss – who was forced to quit as prime minister after just 49 days in office – may not be the best person to front an outlet called popular conservatism, with 65 per cent of voters taking an unfavourable view of her, compared to 11 per cent holding a favourable one. But many at the event see this as less about the next election and more about what comes after. It is then that the real battle of ideas will take place within the Tory party – and this group wants to make sure their voice is heard.