Under-fire Liz Truss is set to meet with moderate Tory MPs this week in a bid to stave off a leadership coup, amid claims Conservative rebels are preparing to oust her as early as this week.
The embattled PM will reportedly meet with the 100-strong One Nation group of centrist Conservatives tonight in a bid to win round a sizeable chunk of the parliamentary party.
It comes as Tory MPs will try to oust Miss Truss this week, despite Downing Street warning that it could trigger a general election.
Mutinous backbench MPs are pressing Tory shop steward Sir Graham Brady to tell the Prime Minister her time is up, or change party rules to allow an immediate vote of confidence in her leadership.
As the Tories descended into yet another civil war, three MPs broke ranks to publicly call on Miss Truss to resign just six weeks into her premiership.
Former minister Crispin Blunt said: ‘The game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.’
Sir Graham, chairman of the 1922 Committee, is said to be resisting an immediate putsch, arguing that the PM and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt deserve the chance to set out their economic strategy in a Budget on October 31.
But sources say that more than 100 MPs are ready to submit letters of no confidence in Miss Truss in a bid to force Sir Graham’s hand.
Some junior ministers are also discussing a wave of co-ordinated resignations of the kind that eventually forced out Boris Johnson. Rebels have even discussed holding a public vote of censure if Sir Graham refuses to act.
One MP involved in discussions about removing the PM said: ‘She has lost the confidence of the markets and she is haemorrhaging support. We need to cauterise the wound, and fast.
‘There is an overwhelming desire among colleagues for it to be over – people want it done this week.’
The extraordinary row came as:
- Mr Hunt insisted the PM was still ‘in charge’ despite forcing her to scrap her tax-cutting agenda at a Chequers summit designed to plug a £72 billion hole in the public finances;
- Whitehall sources said a promised 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax was likely to fall victim to the new desire to balance the books;
- Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded Miss Truss make a Commons statement today on the U-turns, saying she was ‘in office, but not in power’;
- Defence Secretary Ben Wallace warned the PM he could withdraw his support if she ditches her pledge to increase defence spending;
- Miss Truss will hold a Downing Street reception for Cabinet members tonight in a bid to shore up support;
- Former minister Robert Halfon fired a broadside at the ‘libertarian jihadists’ around the PM, who he accused of treating the country ‘like laboratory mice’;
- Downing Street triggered fury after briefing that Sajid Javid had been rejected for the Chancellor’s job because of his ‘s**t’ record in government;
- Goldman Sachs downgraded its growth forecast for the UK following the Government’s tax U-turns;
- A former senior Cabinet minister told the Mail that the Conservative Party would ‘split’ if Miss Truss is forced out and replaced by Rishi Sunak;
- Cabinet allies of the PM warned plotters that triggering a contest could result in Home Secretary Suella Braverman winning and pursuing a more Right-wing agenda.
Head of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady is said to be reluctant to act now, but is being urged to do so by multiple
The briefing against the PM burst into the public arena yesterday, when Mr Blunt became the first Tory MP to call for her to go.
He said Miss Truss was ‘fatally damaged’ following last week’s decision to ditch her economic strategy and sack Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor in a bid to restore market confidence in the Government’s plans.
‘She has to go now as she cannot win nor sustain the confidence of her colleagues, far less the public and a relentless media,’ he said.
‘Her leadership campaign was clear and her policy proposition brave and bold. We have all seen how they have collided with today’s tough economic reality and not survived the impact.’
Fellow Tory Andrew Bridgen also called for the PM to go. Mr Bridgen, an inveterate plotter, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.’
Bridgend MP Jamie Wallis added: ‘Enough is enough.’ In a letter to the PM, he said her botched economic plan had caused ‘clear and obvious harm to the British economy’.
One senior MP who backed Miss Truss said that support was evaporating among her natural allies following the dizzying series of U-turns.
‘She has lost her nerve and she has lost her mandate,’ the former minister said.
‘Raising taxes, turning our back on economic growth is a huge mistake and she has no mandate for it whatsoever – it is the exact opposite of the agenda she won on. She is in pure survival mode now.’
But an ally of the PM hit back, warning that attempts at a ‘coronation’, in which warring Tories set aside their differences to agree a new leader, were doomed to fail –and would likely collapse the Government to trigger an election, which the party stands to lose heavily.
Mr Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Mr Wallace and Mr Hunt are seen as the most likely unity candidates, but rebel MPs are divided over who should lead, while some want Mr Johnson to return.
The ally of the PM warned that attempting to oust her could spark renewed turmoil on the financial markets. And he suggested the plan was deeply undemocratic, likening it to the People’s Vote campaign to overturn the result of the Brexit referendum.
‘The whole Conservative Party owes it to the British people to focus entirely on them and their needs,’ the source said.
Under Tory party rules, a new leader cannot face a formal leadership challenge for a year, regardless of how many MPs submit letters of no confidence.
Committee treasurer Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told Sky News that the rules could be changed, but only ‘if it is clear that an overwhelming majority of the party wish us to do so’ – something he said was ‘a long way off’.
Sir Graham arrived back in the UK last night after a week in Greece and is expected to spend today taking soundings on Miss Truss’s future.
Meanwhile, Miss Truss will address the 100-strong One Nation caucus this evening in an effort to win round MPs, according to The Times. According to the paper, many of the group, chaired by Damian Green, feel excluded from a Government packed with her supporters.
Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, who backed Mr Hunt in the leadership contest, told the BBC: ‘The Conservative Parliamentary Party has always shown itself clear, and indeed ruthless, in making changes if required.
‘If the Prime Minister proves unable to govern effectively, she will have to stand down, and the parliamentary party will make that clear. But we should all be trying to help her to succeed and to get it right.’
Some Truss loyalists last night urged the rebels to calm down. Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: ‘The electorate do not vote for turbulent and divided political parties.
‘If some of my colleagues don’t calm down, stop plotting, and respect the will of the party members, we will lose the next general election.’
Three Tory MPs have today broken rank and publicly urged under-fire Prime Minister Liz Truss to resign – less than two months into her premiership.
Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis today became the latest Conservative backbenchers to go public with their calls for the embattled Tory leader to go.
It comes after ex-minister Crispin Blunt today told Channel 4‘s Andrew Neil Show that he does not think the Prime Minister can survive the current crisis.
Mr Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicester, who supported Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign, also made clear his stance today.
After savaging Ms Truss in a blog post, he told The Daily Telegraph: ‘We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.’
And in a further blow to Ms Truss’s leadership, Jamie Wallis took to Twitter to share a letter sent to the Prime Minister.
Posting the letter, the Bridgend MP wrote: ‘In recent weeks, I have watched as the Government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility and fractured our Party irreparably.
‘Enough is enough. I have written to the Prime Minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country.’
While many Tories have said that the PM is on her way out behind the scene, the three MPs are the first to publicly say her days are numbered – despite Ms Truss axing chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in a bit to keep hold of power.
It comes amid reports that as many as 100 Conservative backbenchers may have written no-confidence letters demanding a vote on whether to depose Ms Truss.
Supporters believe the Prime Minister cannot be challenged due to party rules which mean there cannot be another leadership vote for another 12 months.
But in a further blow, the treasurer of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers suggested a vote could still be held, if the committee’s top table believed there was an overwhelming demand for one.
He told the BBC: ‘Of course we have the power to change the rules.’
Meanwhile, Mr Blunt – who is quitting the Commons at the next election – told Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show that he does not think the Prime Minister can survive the current crisis.
‘I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,’ he said.
Asked how the party will get rid of her, he said: ‘If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected.
‘Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism… but it will happen.’
Later, Bridgend MP, Mr Wallis, became the latest MP to call on Ms Truss to go. In a letter sent to the PM, he criticised the ‘very basic and avoidable errors in your approach’.
The letter, shared on Twitter, read: ‘Your decision to appoint historical supporters of you personally rather than the most qualified politicians available in the party has led to decisions that have done clear and obvious harm to the British economy.
The MP, who came out as transgender earlier this year, said the leadership contest was a ‘particularly difficult time’.
‘Watching senior colleagues exploit the issue of transgender rights and weaponise it in order to score cheap political points was extremely unpleasant.’
He goes on: ‘You chose not to challenge this behaviour and have now chosen to have those same colleagues sit alongside you in your government.
‘Mistakes can be undone, and as one united team I believe we could achieve almost anything. However, whilst you are our leader, I no longer believe this is possible.’
It comes as the Archbishop of Canterbury became the latest critic of Ms Truss’s mini-Budget.
Speaking on a tour of Australia Justin Welby said plans to cut taxes for the rich and rely on trickle down economics were ‘immoral’.
Mr Welby clashed with the Government of previous PM Boris Johnson on a range of issues and he again spoke out while Down Under.
He told the Guardian he could see no ‘moral case’ for a budget that disproportionately hit the poorest, adding: ‘I’m not going to make a party political point because both parties are deeply divided and I’m not going to talk about Australia because I just don’t know the situation. But in the UK, the priority is the cost of living, with the poorest.
‘And from an economics point of view, I’m deeply sceptical about trickle-down theory.
‘You know, if you cut money for the rich, ever since Keynes wrote his general theory in 1936, whenever it was, he showed very clearly that the rich save if they’ve got enough to live on.
‘So if you want to generate spending in the economy, you put more money into the hands of those who need the money to buy food, to buy goods, to buy basic necessities.’
First published in Daily Mail (UK)
