Australian singer and one-time Neighbours actor Holly Valance has been labelled a “Tory poster girl” after giving a rare interview at a conservative political gathering in London.

At the Westminster launch of ex-prime minister Liz Truss’s new Tory faction called Popular Conservatives – dubbed PopCon – with her British billionaire property tycoon husband Nick Candy, Valance was asked about her political leanings after the Tuesday (local time) gathering.

“Have you always been a right-of-centre person? Are you conservative? Where are you, politically?” GB News asked Candy.

“I would say that everyone starts off as a leftie, then wakes up at some point, after you start either making money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home … and then you realise what crap ideas they all are,” Candy said, smiling.

“And then you go to the right.”

She described Truss, who lasted just 50 days in office in 2022, as “really, really interesting to listen to” and gave a shout out to Conservative Party politician Jacob Rees-Mogg.

“Jacob for PM,” she said.

Reaction was swift on social media as the GB News studio panellists unpacked her comments.

“Ah yes, the classic Tory poster girl. A woman who has done nothing for years but just so happens to be married to a mega-rich Tory donor.

“That’ll get them the votes they need,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).

Tweet from @JP__75

Candy, known professionally as Holly Valance, was born in Melbourne and started modelling at age 14, earning $200 an hour before scoring the role of Felicity Scully as a 15-year-old on Aussie soap, Neighbours, from 1999 to 2002.

There were also numerous stints on TV drama series here and in the US, including Prison Break and CSI: Miami and Entourage.

At 19, Holly moved to the UK to pursue a singing career, releasing two albums and finding success with her first single, Kiss Kiss, which reached No.1 in the UK and Australia.

Searching for a Hollywood career, she moved to Los Angeles when she was 20, even landing a role alongside Liam Neeson in Taken in 2008.

Holly Valance and Nick Candy at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland charity preview night in November. Photo: AAP

Valance after fading acting and music careers

After marrying Candy in Beverly Hills in 2012 – he is best known for his background in luxury real estate and for co-founding world-leading interior design business Candy London – her focus switched to family, charity work and setting up homes in London and Los Angeles.

The London-based couple have two daughters Luka and Nova, and a registered charity supporting children with disabilities, The Candy Foundation.

Candy has also donated to the Conservative Party in the past, according to The Guardian.

In 2021, the Hyde Park two-level penthouse apartment they had been living in for five years [equivalent to 18 average English homes] was for sale for £175 million ($337 million) before they invested in a three-hectare Chelsea mansion reportedly worth more than £10 million ($19 million).

Their luxury Holmby Hills Art Deco mansion in LA was listed two years ago for $US126 million ($192 million). It is in one of the most exclusive real estate enclaves in the world.

Over the past two years, Valance has re-emerged in conservative circles, including being photographed with former US President Donald Trump and British politician Nigel Farage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April 2022.

On the wall behind, a framed photo of Trump’s historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un can be seen.

As for the speakers at Truss’s London PopCon?

“They were fantastic,” Valance said.