‘Who will trust them in the future now? Tories plot to replace Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng with Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt even if they DO U-turn, in ‘coronation’ that could create deep schism with party grassroots
- Backbenchers are reported to be discussing replacing PM and Chancellor
- Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt could be parachuted in to replace them
- But attempt at ‘coronation’ by MPs could cause major rift with grassroots
- While Mps backed Sunak, wider membership heavily pro-Truss
The little-remembered George Canning holds the record for the shortest term in office of any UK prime minister.
He was in power for just 119 days in 1827 before dying from tuberculosis and setting an unwelcome record that has stood for almost 200 years – until possibly now.
Liz Truss would have to hold on to No10 until the New Year to beat his tenure. But Backbenchers are reported to be discussing replacing her and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after a mere 37 days in No10.
It has been little more than a month but that period has been one of the most tumultuous in recent history, a period not notably short of political crises.
The economic turmoil caused by Kwarteng’s mini-Budget less than three weeks ago led to the pound diving, a major intervention by the Bank of England to rescue the gilt market and soaring interest rates for homeowners.
And reversing the broad swathe of unfunded tax cuts blamed for the carnage – as they are expected to do as early as today – may not be enough to prevent Tory MPs from acting.
The Times today suggested that Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, who finished as runner up and in third place in the Tory leadership election in the summer – behind Truss – could be parachuted in to replace them.
There is a feeling among some backbenchers that the move is already too late, and the administration has already burned all its bridges down behind it.
One former minister told the MailOnline: ‘Who trusts them or will trust them in the future now?’
Backbenchers are reported to be discussing replacing Ms Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after a mere 37 days in No10
Asked this morning if Kwasi Kwarteng should go, Tory MP Mel Stride, who has led criticism of the mini-Budget, said: ‘No, I think he needs to be given space.’
The Chancellor cut short a visit to an IMF conference in Washington last night to head back to Westminster
The mechanism itself appears misleadingly simple: Truss is deposed and there is a new leadership race. But no on runs against whichever of Sunak and Mordaunt puts themselves forward. There is no drawn-out vote but a simply ‘coronation’ by MPs of the winner.
But this could lead to a major schism between the parliamentary party and the wider grassroots members.
In the summer leadership election, Rishi Sunak was the overwhelming choice of MPs to replace Boris Johnson. But when he and Ms Truss went to a vote of Conservative Party members, she won with 57.4 per cent of the vote.
Almost half of Conservative voters believe the party made the wrong choice of leader this summer, according to a shock new poll.
Only 28 per cent believe the party made the right choice, according to the YouGov survey, conducted for The Times.
But Tory voters are not the same as Tory members, the far smaller group of card-carriers who got to vote in the summer.
In some ways the situation has similarities with Jeremy Corbyn taking control of Labour in 2015: He was loathed by the party’s MPs but loved by the members, who often had more polarised political views.
When the MPs tried to get rid of him, they were defeated by the powerful votes of the members. Which is why, this time round, Tories may want to cut the members out of the equation.
But whether there is a proper, solid plot to defenestrate the administration is not clear.
Asked this morning if Kwasi Kwarteng should go, Tory MP Mel Stride, who has led criticism of the mini-Budget, said: ‘No, I think he needs to be given space. I think the last thing we need at this moment is even more turbulence with a change of personnel.
‘What we need to do, certainly as a parliamentary party, is to deep breathe and stay calm and allow the Chancellor and Prime Minister to have a look at this, make the announcements they’re going to make and give them the opportunity to come forward with this OBR forecast at the end of this month.
‘Now, of course, they’ve got to get all those things right and there is the chance they get them wrong.
‘But if they get them right and they can reset with the markets, then I think there’s an opportunity to create a platform on which we can build going forward. But times are very tough here and the risks are really hard.’
Former minister Nadine Dorries, never one to mince her words, lashed out at would-be plotters and accusing them of trying to ‘overturn democracy’.
The former Cabinet minister tweeted: ‘Those absurdly called grandee MPs (men) agitating to remove Liz Truss are all Sunak supporters.
‘They agitated to remove @borisjohnson and now they will continue plotting until they get their way. It’s a plot not to remove a PM but to overturn democracy.’
Conservative peer Lord Vaizey said a U-turn will be ‘very embarrassing’ for Kwarteng and will damage his authority – but it is ‘not inevitable’ he will be forced to go.
Speaking to Sky News, he said the decision to make a U-turn is a ‘terrible dilemma’ for the Government.
‘If he does a U-turn like this, it will be very damaging to his authority. Can he get through it? Who knows.
‘The fact that people were speculating about the Prime Minister’s leadership this early in her premiership is not ideal but I think he’s just got to bite the bullet.
‘He’s got to try to give the markets confidence in the British economy. And if he can do that then perhaps he can say: ‘Well, I had to do some difficult choices, slightly humiliating choices but the result is stabilisation and I can move forward.”
On the mood among Tory backbenches, Lord Vaizey said: ‘I think the mood is relatively bleak in the sense that this is a self-inflected wound.
‘We didn’t have to have a mini-budget that was so radical and which wasn’t joined up with both tax cuts accompanied by proposals on public spending. But having said that, I think there’s also a yearning for leadership to steady the ship, so to give them the opportunity in the next couple of weeks to do the things that are necessary in order to get back on course.’
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