Truss’s fate hanging by a thread: Cabinet ministers plead for angry Tory MPs to hold fire as 1922 committee chief Graham Brady arrives back from holiday – amid claims 100 MPs are telling him to change party rules to oust the PM
- Cabinet ministers urge Tory MPs to avoid a ‘soap opera’ as PM fights for survival
- Liz Truss due to hold crunch meeting with ‘centrist’ Conservatives this evening
- Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee, is also due to meet with the PM
Cabinet ministers are urging Tory MPs to avoid another ‘soap opera’ as Liz Truss fights to stay in Downing Street – amid claims more than 100 of them are poised to try and topple the Prime Minister.
Westminster is braced for another dramatic day as Ms Truss attempts to save her disastrous premiership in the wake of her mini-Budget debacle and ensuing financial turmoil.
The PM has abandoned the economic agenda on which she campaigned for the Tory leadership this summer and tasked Jeremy Hunt – who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor on Friday – with efforts to soothe the turbulent markets.
Mr Hunt was referred to as the ‘de facto Prime Minister’ by a senior Conservative MP this morning in a withering putdown of Ms Truss.
The PM was also warned she remains in No10 ‘at the moment’ as she prepares for a crunch meeting with ‘centrist’ Tory MPs this evening.
It comes after ex-Chancellor George Osborne branded Ms Truss as ‘Pino – Prime Minister in name only’ and predicted she would be gone by Christmas.
Three Conservative backbenchers have already broken ranks to demand Ms Truss quits as PM.
It has been claimed more than 100 are ready to submit letters of no confidence in her leadership to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Tories’ powerful 1922 Committee.
Sir Graham has arrived home from holiday and is expected to meet with Ms Truss.
He is facing demands from Tory backbenchers to tell the PM her time is up or change party rules to allow an immediate vote of confidence in her leadership.
Under current rules, Ms Truss is safe from such a vote in the first 12 months of her leadership.
Liz Truss has been warned she remains in No10 ‘at the moment’ as she prepares for a crunch meeting with ‘centrist’ Tory MPs this evening
Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Tories’ powerful 1922 Committee, has arrived home from holiday and is also expected to meet with the PM
Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, used a newspaper article this morning to urge MPs to rally behind the PM and new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt
Mr Hunt was referred to as the ‘de facto Prime Minister’ by a senior Conservative MP this morning in a withering putdown of Ms Truss
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries warned MPs to either support Ms Truss or bring back Boris Johnson to avoid a general election
With mutinous Tory MPs still undecided over who could replace the PM – or how they might best force her out – Cabinet ministers are pushing back against the feverish speculation over Ms Truss’s future.
Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons who has been tipped as a possible replacement for Ms Truss, used a newspaper article this morning to urge MPs to rally behind the PM and Mr Hunt.
‘Our country needs stability, not a soap opera,’ she wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
The national mission though is clear, as the Prime Minister said,’ Ms Mordaunt added.
‘That is what we should all focus on now. It needs pragmatism and teamwork. It needs us to work with the Prime Minister and her new Chancellor. It needs all of us.’
But, despite Ms Mordaunt’s public backing, there was no Government minister doing TV or radio interviews this morning in defence of Ms Truss’s position.
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries warned MPs to either support Ms Truss or bring back Boris Johnson to avoid a general election.
‘There is no unity candidate. No one has enough support,’ she posted on Twitter.
‘Only one MP has a mandate from party members and from the British public – a mandate with an 80 seat majority.
‘The choices are simple – back Liz, if not bring back Boris or face a GE within weeks.’
As part of her efforts to shore up her position, the PM is due to meet with the 100-strong One Nation group of Tory MPs this evening.
Former minister Victoria Atkins confirmed Ms Truss’s attendance and said the group would ‘do our very best and are a very warm, welcoming audience for Cabinet ministers’.
‘At the forefront of our minds will be asking her questions as to how she intends to emphasise our compassionate Conservative principles that have won us elections since 2010,’ she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Asked whether she wants Ms Truss to lead the Tories into the next general election, Ms Atkins replied: ‘She is the PM at the moment, we will not have an election for the next few years.
‘I want her to get us back on to the right track, I want her to reiterate our concerns for our constituents and for compassionate One Nation values.’
Asked again if she wants Ms Truss to lead the Conservatives into the next election, Ms Atkins said: ‘If she’s able to bring those values to the fore then I’m very happy for her to do that.’
Senior backbencher Sir Roger Gale referred to Mr Hunt as the ‘de facto Prime Minister at the moment’.
‘It’s quite clear that all the shots are now being called from No 11,’ he told Sky News.
‘And in a way I’m happy to say that I’m very pleased that they are because I think that will stabilise the markets and I hope that we can find a way forward for the United Kingdom.
‘If he gets this wrong, then we’re going to go hell in a handcart but if he gets it right, then we can emerge from this, I think, better and stronger and we can start to move forward in the direction that we all really want to go.’
Former deputy PM Damian Green suggested that Mr Hunt’s appointed as Chancellor was ‘already beginning to reassure the markets’ and offered hope the Conservatives could ‘start again’.
He referred to Ms Truss as a ‘pragmatist’, adding: ‘She’s realised that the first budget didn’t work in spectacular fashion.
‘So she’s now taken the sensible view that we will now try something else, and she’s appointed a very sensible Chancellor in Jeremy Hunt.’
Mr Green said it ‘would be best’ for the Tories to avoid another leadership election.
‘I think the general public would be entitled to look pretty askance at that – and so the ideal outcome for the country most importantly, but also, as it happens, for the Conservative Party, is for the Government to succeed,’ he continued.
‘I think the appointment of Jeremy Hunt and what he’s done so far shows us a way that we can do that and if we continue on that course then we will get back the stability that everyone is crying out for.’
Liz Smith, finance and economy spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives at Holyrood, told the BBC that Ms Truss has ‘just days left to turn this round and if she can’t do that she would have to stand down’.
Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell suggested Ms Truss had just a fortnight to save her premiership.
‘I think the next two weeks will be critical in determining the answer to that question,’ he told Times Radio, when asked if Ms Truss would lead the Tories into the next election.
Crispin Blunt, Jamie Wallis and Andrew Bridgen all publicly called for Ms Truss to quit last night.
Mr Blunt today told Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show he does not think the PM can survive the current crisis.
Mr Bridgen, who supported Rishi Sunak’s leadership campaign, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better.’
Mr Wallis took to Twitter to share a letter sent to the Prime Minister.
He 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 PM to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country.’
Source: Read Full Article
