Spice Girls’ Geri Halliwell ‘told Liz Truss to go for it’ in Tory leadership bid
The former Spice Girls singer told Truss to ‘go for’ the leadership bid (Clive Mason & Finnbarr Webster/Getty)
Geri Halliwell has more fans singing goodbye, my friend after she reportedly told Liz Truss to “go for” the Tory leadership.
The Spice Girls singer reportedly gave Truss encouragement as the pair watched the Women’s Euro 2022 final at Wembley on Sunday (31 July), according to The Mail+.
“She said ‘go for it’, she was very positive,” Truss told the outlet.
Geri, who infamously once described Margaret Thatcher as “the original Spice Girl”, was seen hugging Tory MP Nadine Dorries at the Euro final.
The MP shared the snap to Twitter, writing: “Girl power radiating from Wembley tonight.”
Girl power radiating from Wembley tonight 💥✌🏻 pic.twitter.com/uVKrOnnJlA
— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) July 31, 2022
Both encounters have left Spice Girls fans “disappointed” but “unsurprised”.
During their heyday, the girl group hinted at Tory leanings.
In an interview with The Spectator in 1996, Geri, then 24, said: “We Spice Girls are true Thatcherites. Thatcher was the first Spice Girl, the pioneer of our ideology – Girl Power.”
The group also voiced their opinions on Euroscepticism and the debate surrounding whether Britain should adopt the Euro – a highly-debated topic at the time.
Posh Spice Victoria Beckham reportedly called the European federal plan an “outrage,” while Geri said that Britain was “the first to break away from the Roman Empire,” and so must maintain their national identity.
“The Euro-bureaucrats are destroying every bit of national identity,” Victoria continued. “Let me give you an example – those new passports are revolting, an insult to our kingdom. We must keep our national individuality.”
While the clues have always been there that Geri is in fact Tory Spice, fans were particularly upset by her cosying up to Dorries considering her voting records on LGBTQ+ rights.
The secretary for digital, culture, media, and sport voted against same-sex marriage after saying it was “political suicide,” arguing that it could never be valid because queer couples cannot consummate the union with “ordinary and complete sex”.
“If the gay marriage bill takes sex out of marriage, could a sister marry a sister to avoid inheritance tax?” she asked parliament in 2013. “The definition of marriage and the definition of sex is for ordinary and complete sex to have taken place. Same-sex couples cannot meet this requirement.”
She later acknowledged her regret on the subject in 2018, saying that her “biggest regret as MP is voting against gay marriage”.
Dorries reiterated her regrets again in October 2021 during a broadcast on LBC, saying: “How could I have voted against people like you two?” referencing host Iain Dale’s own same-sex wedding.
“I felt as though I had voted against love, really, and that was not a comfortable feeling. If I could just turn the clock back, I absolutely would, and I would change that vote.”
