Liz Truss is battling to rebuild her shattered authority after she was forced to sack her Chancellor and U-turn on a key pledge from her leadership campaign.
The Prime Minister faces the prospect of a coup from furious Conservative MPs who fear she will be unable to rescue the party’s reputation among voters.
In an eight-minute Downing Street press conference on Friday, held shortly after she fired close ally Kwasi Kwarteng and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt, Ms Truss insisted she remains committed to her plans to grow the economy, even thought she announced the sharp rise in corporation tax which she had promised to scrap will go ahead next year.
The conference apparently failed to reassure many Tory MPs with several senior figures warning that the Prime Minister could be forced out of office within weeks or even days – despite the risks for the party of installing a second new, unelected leader in a year.
A senior minister told i: “It’s over, I imagine.” A former minister added: “Credibility can be retained to some extent under a new leader but not this one.” A backbencher described Ms Truss’s press conference performance in one word: “Hopeless.” Asked if it meant she was going to be ousted, they replied: “I certainly hope so.”
Even supporters of the Prime Minister have cast doubt on her leadership. Veteran Brexiteer Sir Christopher Chope told Times Radio he was “in a state of despair and utter disbelief”, hitting out at the decision to go ahead with increasing corporation tax. He agreed that the party was a “laughing stock” and added: “Everything that the Prime Minister stood for – growth, growth, growth – she’s now undermined by this incredible U-turn.”
Mr Kwarteng was summoned back from a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on Thursday night, and was asked to resign by Ms Truss, a close friend for more than a decade, shortly after he landed in London. His deputy, Chris Philp, who has repeatedly been sent out to defend last month’s mini-Budget in the media, has been moved to the Cabinet Office in a job swap with Edward Argar, who now replaces him as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
The Prime Minister has made it clear privately that she does not believe she has done anything wrong but decided to fire Mr Kwarteng as a signal to markets that she is ready to respond to their concerns.
The new Chancellor, Mr Hunt, was chosen due to his centrist credentials and nine years of Cabinet experience as culture secretary, health secretary and foreign secretary. He is the fourth person to head the Treasury since July after Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Mr Kwarteng.
Steve Brine, a close ally of Mr Hunt, suggested he would effectively run the Government, telling the BBC last night: “You should see Liz Truss as chairman and Jeremy as chief executive.”
At a press conference in Downing Street, Ms Truss confirmed a second U-turn on the fiscal statement as she announced that corporation tax will rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in July.
The hike was initially planned by Mr Sunak, but during the Conservative leadership campaign this summer, Ms Truss promised to cancel it because of the damaging effect it could have on economic growth.
She said: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, the potential of this great country has been held back by consistently weak growth. I want to deliver a low-tax high-wage high-growth economy it was is what I was elected by my party to do. That mission remains. But it is clear that parts of our mini-Budget went further and faster than markets were expecting so the way we are delivering our mission right now has to change.”
The Prime Minister took only four questions from reporters and repeatedly insisted there was no need to reconsider her own position in light of the political chaos.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats demanded an immediate general election. Sir Keir Starmer said: “Change in personnel at the top of the Tory party is not the change we need. We need a change of government.”
Some internal critics believe Ms Truss will be gone in a matter of days, despite the lack of a formal mechanism to depose her. Others believe she will have a number of weeks or even months to rescue her leadership, but will still be forced out if the Tories’ position in the polls does not improve.
A Conservative leader cannot be formally challenged in a no-confidence vote for the first year after their election, under the current rules.
But the 1922 Committee of backbenchers could change its rules if officers believe there is a critical mass of people who want to remove the leader. Ms Truss would also come under intense pressure to resign if dozens of MPs made it clear they would not vote for her central policies in the House of Commons, effectively depriving her of a majority.
One backbencher said that one option would be that “we get rid of her and find a unifying candidate without a contest”. Mr Sunak, Ben Wallace and Penny Mordaunt are among the potential leaders spoken of as a “unity leader”, according to MPs.
Another Conservative MP said: “A lot of colleagues are saying we’ll give her six months, see what the local election results look like. And they are genuinely talking about whether it might be time then to bring back Boris – he has a mandate from the people and he is popular with activists.”
Multiple Cabinet ministers took to Twitter on Friday night to express their support for Ms Truss, while her deputy Thérèse Coffey held a conference call with MPs. The call apparently failed to settle nerves with backbenchers describing it as “delusional nonsense”.
The Prime Minister’s aides insist she is in “listening mode” and will keep speaking to MPs next week to avert a leadership crisis. “She is welcoming the opportunity to get their thoughts and views,” a source said.
I don’t know why Tory party members are still doing the shocked Pikachu face when it turns out their leader isn’t going to stick to their word. How did they think the slimeballs weaseled their way to the top of such a corrupt establishment .. by always telling the truth?
I think there should be a rule where if they want to oust an unelected leader of a party, it should immediately trigger a general election. The party can’t just keep chopping and changing their minds every time they’ve backed the wrong horse.
The article says Penny Mordant or Rishi Sunak would be potential alternatives, yet why were they then eliminated from the leadership contest? Because they aren’t going to lower corporation tax either, as we all know it’s not economically viable to do so right now. The Tory party should have listened to Sunak when he pointed out that Truss’s policies would lead to insane borrowing, referring to it as communism at the time.
That lettuce is probably still fresh enough for a salad at this point.
The non stop coverage of the Tory candidates, wall to wall bullshit about votes and debates and interviews and promises and talking and radio news filled with non stop who’s going to be voted for by the Tory members (guess the TV wasn’t much different) and this is what we get. Complete fuck up. Again.
I hold zero hope for Britain because it’s filled with people who vote for these people. Wankers.
Please oust this incompetent leader and answer the public cries for a general election the country needs stability and change since the Conservative party clearly have cycled through their most capable individuals and clearly are struggling to produce a leader or cabinet members who are actually able to do their jobs it’s dangerous for society, economy and health of our already fleeting NHS due to incompetent health Secretarys that bring scandals and are clearly making personal gain (corruption and not fixing core problems that are blatantly obvious with clear solutions). I don’t think our economy will survive another Conservative prime minister who ever says that Conservatives are good with money and believe that they can bring the country into a net positive growth please record and use these suffering years as an example of their blatant personal gain to hedge funders and the top 0.1 percent of the country while children starve since they have to rely on food banks while the chancellor and friends live it large with champaign and strawberries,laughing to the bank on the countless that are and will be suffering thanks to their actions with zero consequences.
The markets that rock the cradle –
Are the markets that rule the world –
Liz who?
How many bad PMs do they need before we can have a GE is that not a thing? If not it should be
She committed the one sin she could that they would actually punish her go for.
She messed with the money.
You do not mess with the money.
Hey, but y’all got that Brexit done, didn’t ya? /s
Is anyone actually surprised that she’s so incompetent? You only need to watch one of her speeches from over the years to see that she’s not playing with a full deck.
General Election or gtfo. I can’t believe the excuse not to hold one is because they don’t want to lose their seats. Self serving bastards. Will there ever be a Government that serves in the interest of the country first?
lets not forget Tory cunt who got us here
>Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband
Isn’t this is the point where the public usually takes to the streets to demand a general election?
Our country is such a fucking shit show at the moment. This government is a mess of incompetence and corruption.
They have 79(!) days to get rid of her before she loses the title of the shortest tenure ever by a British Prime Minister.
“And they are genuinely talking about whether it might be time then to bring back Boris – he has a mandate from the people and he is popular with activists.”
Absolutely bloody not.
She has no mandate to do sweeping changes, it’s quite simple.
If she wanted to enact such drastic moves, she should have called a GE and put it to the people.
Why not take it to the people?
Surely they need to. This is just embarrassing
Can we have a general election yet? Asking for a friend
> She said: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, the potential of this great country has been held back by consistently weak growth.
Gee, I wonder who was in power for most of those years? And who, after 2010, instituted policies to “solve” the GFC???
Yeah, but imagine if Corbyn had been in power though!
– Daily Express
Tory MPs acting like this is Truss’s fault, it isn’t, it’s theirs.
They put her in that position knowing she wasn’t up to it having seen her work in cabinet for years.
When you ask your 5yr old drive you home after a night on the beer you can’t blame them when they plough into the canal.
The problem is she wasn’t voted for by the general public. She was voted for by (presumably mostly wealthy) Tory party members, who expected her to cut taxes. She did that, but shockingly the public hated that and so did the international financial markets. So now she’s u-turned and is having to do the opposite of what the Tory party members wanted.
She doesn’t have the trust of anyone right now, and I’m not sure how someone can lead in such a position.
General election is being debated in parliament tomorrow following the petition which got 500,000+ signatures. Should be interesting.
Over the course of six years we had over three PM’s.
All while in Tory rule, the incompetence and the delusion is real.
Never ever vote for a Tory again. Get them out now
**Sir Arnold:** “So, will the new PM be our eminent Chancellor or our distinguished Foreign Secretary?”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Which do you think it should be?”
**Sir Arnold:** “Difficult. It’s like asking which lunatic should run the asylum.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “The trouble is, they’re both interventionists. They both have foolish notions of running the country themselves if they became Prime Minister.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Have we any allies?”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Oh, yes, quite a few – the Chief Whip particularly; but he’s worried that whichever gets the job will antagonise the other’s supporters and split the party.”
**Sir Arnold:** “So we’re looking for a compromise candidate.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Hmmm. Malleable.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Flexible.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Likeable.”
**Sir Arnold:** “No firm opinions.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “No bright ideas.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Not intellectually committed.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Without the strength or purpose to change anything.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Someone who you know can be manip-. Professionally guided.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “…and leave the business of government in the hands of the experts.”
Still find it a joke that in a democracy we don’t just call general elections, how come we keep getting unelected leaders?
How many more of the insane clown posse do we have to work through? Before we get a general election.
If King Charles wants to earn some brownie points with the public he should intervene and force a general election
General election right fucking now please! Get these cunts out. Every rat bastard one of em.
At this point the most sensible thing is for the tories to call a General Election.
If the polls are correct, they would lose… But, they would leave Labour holding the bag for their absolute shitshow of a decade.
So when (shockingly) labour can’t fix it, they can swan back in (because the British public have the shortest memories when it comes to Tories) and they can blame literally everything in the past 2 decades on labour.
I am absolutely smacked they haven’t gone down this route yet.
31 comments
Liz Truss is battling to rebuild her shattered authority after she was forced to sack her Chancellor and U-turn on a key pledge from her leadership campaign.
The Prime Minister faces the prospect of a coup from furious Conservative MPs who fear she will be unable to rescue the party’s reputation among voters.
In an eight-minute Downing Street press conference on Friday, held shortly after she fired close ally Kwasi Kwarteng and replaced him with Jeremy Hunt, Ms Truss insisted she remains committed to her plans to grow the economy, even thought she announced the sharp rise in corporation tax which she had promised to scrap will go ahead next year.
The conference apparently failed to reassure many Tory MPs with several senior figures warning that the Prime Minister could be forced out of office within weeks or even days – despite the risks for the party of installing a second new, unelected leader in a year.
A senior minister told i: “It’s over, I imagine.” A former minister added: “Credibility can be retained to some extent under a new leader but not this one.” A backbencher described Ms Truss’s press conference performance in one word: “Hopeless.” Asked if it meant she was going to be ousted, they replied: “I certainly hope so.”
Even supporters of the Prime Minister have cast doubt on her leadership. Veteran Brexiteer Sir Christopher Chope told Times Radio he was “in a state of despair and utter disbelief”, hitting out at the decision to go ahead with increasing corporation tax. He agreed that the party was a “laughing stock” and added: “Everything that the Prime Minister stood for – growth, growth, growth – she’s now undermined by this incredible U-turn.”
Mr Kwarteng was summoned back from a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC on Thursday night, and was asked to resign by Ms Truss, a close friend for more than a decade, shortly after he landed in London. His deputy, Chris Philp, who has repeatedly been sent out to defend last month’s mini-Budget in the media, has been moved to the Cabinet Office in a job swap with Edward Argar, who now replaces him as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
The Prime Minister has made it clear privately that she does not believe she has done anything wrong but decided to fire Mr Kwarteng as a signal to markets that she is ready to respond to their concerns.
The new Chancellor, Mr Hunt, was chosen due to his centrist credentials and nine years of Cabinet experience as culture secretary, health secretary and foreign secretary. He is the fourth person to head the Treasury since July after Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Mr Kwarteng.
Steve Brine, a close ally of Mr Hunt, suggested he would effectively run the Government, telling the BBC last night: “You should see Liz Truss as chairman and Jeremy as chief executive.”
At a press conference in Downing Street, Ms Truss confirmed a second U-turn on the fiscal statement as she announced that corporation tax will rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in July.
The hike was initially planned by Mr Sunak, but during the Conservative leadership campaign this summer, Ms Truss promised to cancel it because of the damaging effect it could have on economic growth.
She said: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, the potential of this great country has been held back by consistently weak growth. I want to deliver a low-tax high-wage high-growth economy it was is what I was elected by my party to do. That mission remains. But it is clear that parts of our mini-Budget went further and faster than markets were expecting so the way we are delivering our mission right now has to change.”
The Prime Minister took only four questions from reporters and repeatedly insisted there was no need to reconsider her own position in light of the political chaos.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats demanded an immediate general election. Sir Keir Starmer said: “Change in personnel at the top of the Tory party is not the change we need. We need a change of government.”
Some internal critics believe Ms Truss will be gone in a matter of days, despite the lack of a formal mechanism to depose her. Others believe she will have a number of weeks or even months to rescue her leadership, but will still be forced out if the Tories’ position in the polls does not improve.
A Conservative leader cannot be formally challenged in a no-confidence vote for the first year after their election, under the current rules.
But the 1922 Committee of backbenchers could change its rules if officers believe there is a critical mass of people who want to remove the leader. Ms Truss would also come under intense pressure to resign if dozens of MPs made it clear they would not vote for her central policies in the House of Commons, effectively depriving her of a majority.
One backbencher said that one option would be that “we get rid of her and find a unifying candidate without a contest”. Mr Sunak, Ben Wallace and Penny Mordaunt are among the potential leaders spoken of as a “unity leader”, according to MPs.
Another Conservative MP said: “A lot of colleagues are saying we’ll give her six months, see what the local election results look like. And they are genuinely talking about whether it might be time then to bring back Boris – he has a mandate from the people and he is popular with activists.”
Multiple Cabinet ministers took to Twitter on Friday night to express their support for Ms Truss, while her deputy Thérèse Coffey held a conference call with MPs. The call apparently failed to settle nerves with backbenchers describing it as “delusional nonsense”.
The Prime Minister’s aides insist she is in “listening mode” and will keep speaking to MPs next week to avert a leadership crisis. “She is welcoming the opportunity to get their thoughts and views,” a source said.
I don’t know why Tory party members are still doing the shocked Pikachu face when it turns out their leader isn’t going to stick to their word. How did they think the slimeballs weaseled their way to the top of such a corrupt establishment .. by always telling the truth?
I think there should be a rule where if they want to oust an unelected leader of a party, it should immediately trigger a general election. The party can’t just keep chopping and changing their minds every time they’ve backed the wrong horse.
The article says Penny Mordant or Rishi Sunak would be potential alternatives, yet why were they then eliminated from the leadership contest? Because they aren’t going to lower corporation tax either, as we all know it’s not economically viable to do so right now. The Tory party should have listened to Sunak when he pointed out that Truss’s policies would lead to insane borrowing, referring to it as communism at the time.
That lettuce is probably still fresh enough for a salad at this point.
The non stop coverage of the Tory candidates, wall to wall bullshit about votes and debates and interviews and promises and talking and radio news filled with non stop who’s going to be voted for by the Tory members (guess the TV wasn’t much different) and this is what we get. Complete fuck up. Again.
I hold zero hope for Britain because it’s filled with people who vote for these people. Wankers.
Please oust this incompetent leader and answer the public cries for a general election the country needs stability and change since the Conservative party clearly have cycled through their most capable individuals and clearly are struggling to produce a leader or cabinet members who are actually able to do their jobs it’s dangerous for society, economy and health of our already fleeting NHS due to incompetent health Secretarys that bring scandals and are clearly making personal gain (corruption and not fixing core problems that are blatantly obvious with clear solutions). I don’t think our economy will survive another Conservative prime minister who ever says that Conservatives are good with money and believe that they can bring the country into a net positive growth please record and use these suffering years as an example of their blatant personal gain to hedge funders and the top 0.1 percent of the country while children starve since they have to rely on food banks while the chancellor and friends live it large with champaign and strawberries,laughing to the bank on the countless that are and will be suffering thanks to their actions with zero consequences.
The markets that rock the cradle –
Are the markets that rule the world –
Liz who?
How many bad PMs do they need before we can have a GE is that not a thing? If not it should be
She committed the one sin she could that they would actually punish her go for.
She messed with the money.
You do not mess with the money.
Hey, but y’all got that Brexit done, didn’t ya? /s
Is anyone actually surprised that she’s so incompetent? You only need to watch one of her speeches from over the years to see that she’s not playing with a full deck.
General Election or gtfo. I can’t believe the excuse not to hold one is because they don’t want to lose their seats. Self serving bastards. Will there ever be a Government that serves in the interest of the country first?
lets not forget Tory cunt who got us here
>Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband
Isn’t this is the point where the public usually takes to the streets to demand a general election?
Our country is such a fucking shit show at the moment. This government is a mess of incompetence and corruption.
They have 79(!) days to get rid of her before she loses the title of the shortest tenure ever by a British Prime Minister.
“And they are genuinely talking about whether it might be time then to bring back Boris – he has a mandate from the people and he is popular with activists.”
Absolutely bloody not.
She has no mandate to do sweeping changes, it’s quite simple.
If she wanted to enact such drastic moves, she should have called a GE and put it to the people.
Why not take it to the people?
Surely they need to. This is just embarrassing
Can we have a general election yet? Asking for a friend
> She said: “Since the 2008 financial crisis, the potential of this great country has been held back by consistently weak growth.
Gee, I wonder who was in power for most of those years? And who, after 2010, instituted policies to “solve” the GFC???
Yeah, but imagine if Corbyn had been in power though!
– Daily Express
Tory MPs acting like this is Truss’s fault, it isn’t, it’s theirs.
They put her in that position knowing she wasn’t up to it having seen her work in cabinet for years.
When you ask your 5yr old drive you home after a night on the beer you can’t blame them when they plough into the canal.
The problem is she wasn’t voted for by the general public. She was voted for by (presumably mostly wealthy) Tory party members, who expected her to cut taxes. She did that, but shockingly the public hated that and so did the international financial markets. So now she’s u-turned and is having to do the opposite of what the Tory party members wanted.
She doesn’t have the trust of anyone right now, and I’m not sure how someone can lead in such a position.
General election is being debated in parliament tomorrow following the petition which got 500,000+ signatures. Should be interesting.
Over the course of six years we had over three PM’s.
All while in Tory rule, the incompetence and the delusion is real.
Never ever vote for a Tory again. Get them out now
**Sir Arnold:** “So, will the new PM be our eminent Chancellor or our distinguished Foreign Secretary?”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Which do you think it should be?”
**Sir Arnold:** “Difficult. It’s like asking which lunatic should run the asylum.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “The trouble is, they’re both interventionists. They both have foolish notions of running the country themselves if they became Prime Minister.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Have we any allies?”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Oh, yes, quite a few – the Chief Whip particularly; but he’s worried that whichever gets the job will antagonise the other’s supporters and split the party.”
**Sir Arnold:** “So we’re looking for a compromise candidate.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Hmmm. Malleable.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Flexible.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Likeable.”
**Sir Arnold:** “No firm opinions.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “No bright ideas.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Not intellectually committed.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “Without the strength or purpose to change anything.”
**Sir Arnold:** “Someone who you know can be manip-. Professionally guided.”
**Sir Humphrey:** “…and leave the business of government in the hands of the experts.”
……
*SUPPRESSED UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER*
**Sir Humphrey:** “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… It’s impossible!”
r/YesMinister
Still find it a joke that in a democracy we don’t just call general elections, how come we keep getting unelected leaders?
How many more of the insane clown posse do we have to work through? Before we get a general election.
If King Charles wants to earn some brownie points with the public he should intervene and force a general election
General election right fucking now please! Get these cunts out. Every rat bastard one of em.
At this point the most sensible thing is for the tories to call a General Election.
If the polls are correct, they would lose… But, they would leave Labour holding the bag for their absolute shitshow of a decade.
So when (shockingly) labour can’t fix it, they can swan back in (because the British public have the shortest memories when it comes to Tories) and they can blame literally everything in the past 2 decades on labour.
I am absolutely smacked they haven’t gone down this route yet.