The options to remove Liz Truss as some Tory ministers say PM ‘cannot survive’

Published

3 years ago

October 14, 2022

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The chancellor has been sacked; the nuclear option for any PM.

Tory MPs including ministers tell me Liz Truss herself – prime minister for just five weeks – cannot survive and there is discussion about how to remove her.

Politics live: Reaction after Liz Truss gives news conference following chancellor’s sacking

But removing a sitting prime minister who doesn’t want to leave office isn’t always easy. Here are some of the options.

She could resign

No prime minister wants to be hounded out of Downing Street but it could be that Ms Truss, fuelled by cabinet resignations, sees the writing on the wall and announces a Conservative leadership contest.

This is what the last two prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Theresa May, ended up doing after both won no confidence votes of their MPs but their positions became untenable.

Both of them were in office for three years, though, not just a matter of weeks.

Vote of no confidence

Not so easy. The last Conservative leader to be ousted by their peers in parliament was Iain Duncan Smith in 2003.

Like Ms Truss, he was the choice of the party members, but not his MP colleagues (who favoured Ken Clarke); like Ms Truss he was also accused of making things worse by not reaching out across the party when appointing his cabinet; and he struggled to maintain authority.

But – thanks to a little-known rule of the backbench 1922 Committee – this is not currently an option.

When Mr Johnson became prime minister in the summer of 2019, the powerful committee decided that a new leader would get a “grace period” of a year before they could be challenged.

This is an unwritten rule and could of course be changed if enough letters come in to trigger a vote or if there is clamour internally.

Some letters have gone in already, I’m told by MPs.

As one source on the 1922 Committee put it to me, committee chairman Sir Graham Brady “would have to act if we found ourselves in that situation”.

A coronation

The problem is that many Conservative MPs feel it was the membership who chose Ms Truss – based on an unachievable prospectus – and they would rather not allow them to choose her successor.

This is much trickier, as the principle that the leader is “elected by the membership” is enshrined in Schedule 2 of the Conservative Party’s written constitution and overturning that would require a two-thirds majority in a vote of the National Conservative Convention, which has 800 members comprising the party’s senior officials including grassroots association chairs.

There is no guarantee of how that might go, and there would be accusations that it was shutting down party democracy.

Just one contender

One option would be for MPs to shortlist two candidates in a leadership contest, and for one of them to drop out – as Andrea Leadsom did in her contest with Mrs May in 2016.

The last candidate standing would become leader “by acclamation” and that could happen quite quickly.

Or, as ConservativeHome’s Paul Goodman has suggested, MPs could set a higher bar of say 100 MPs supporting each candidate so there is only one possible winner.

But it’s not clear there is a unifying figure to undertake that role.

Rishi Sunak supporters believe he has been vindicated for predicting market turmoil, but it’s far from clear he would be accepted more widely.

An election

Ms Truss could make the extremely bold decision, given her party is now 30 points behind in the polls, to go for an election.

The Fixed Term Parliaments Act has been repealed so she would not need a vote in parliament to do this – to which you would imagine only Conservatives would be opposed.

Then the voters would decide her fate.

World

Jair Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court judges vote to convict ex-president of attempting a coup

Published

34 mins ago

September 11, 2025

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Jair Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court judges vote to convict ex-president of attempting a coup

The majority of a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court judges have voted to convict the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup after his 2022 election defeat.

The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel.

Just one of the five judges has acquitted Bolsonaro and when the final one has voted, the panel will decide on the former president’s sentence – which could amount to decades in prison.

The five counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.

The 70-year-old, who has denied any wrongdoing, is currently under house arrest at his home in Brasilia.

His lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.

The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government.

Bolsonaro ally Donald Trump has already called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.

Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.

He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday he was seen at his garage at his property, but did not talk to the media.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.

On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.

Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro.

She said: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”

The far-right politician had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.

He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.

World

Qatari PM says Israel ‘killed any hope’ of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies

Published

10 hours ago

September 11, 2025

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Qatari PM says Israel 'killed any hope' of releasing hostages as criticism over Doha attack intensifies

Qatar’s prime minister said Israel has “killed any hope” of seeing more hostages returned from Gaza after carrying out an attack targeting Hamas leadership in his country.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani intensified his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Tuesday’s unprecedented strike on Qatar, which killed at least six people.

“I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh Mohammed told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday.

“They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation, they have no other hope for that.”

Sheikh Mohammed added that he thought Netanyahu had “just killed any hope for those hostages”.

A total of 48 Israeli hostages captured during Hamas’ 7 October attacks on southern Israel have not been returned home.

With its attack in Qatar, Israel had sought to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas.

Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.

The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been mediating negotiations to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump reportedly held a heated phone call with Mr Netanyahu after the attack, telling him his decision to target Hamas leadership in Qatar was not wise, according to The Wall Street Journal.

There has been no immediate acknowledgement of the remarks from Mr Netanyahu, however, he’s continued to defend the strikes and threatened further action against Qatar.

“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Because if you don’t, we will.”

A senior figure in the Qatari government, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, was the one to announce to the world on X that America’s call to alert them to the attack came 10 minutes after the first explosion sounded in Doha.

Dr Al-Ansari, who serves as Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, recounted the moment of the attack to Sky News’ correspondent Sally Lockwood.

“I was coming home to my family and the moment I stepped out of the car I started hearing the loud noises that can only be compared to bombs,” he said.

“Being a diplomat and working for the foreign ministry throughout the mediation that we have conducted, I immediately knew that that meant that something terrible has happened.

“I can’t tell you enough how as a father living here in Qatar, that moment was a moment of reckoning for me and for all my countrymen and people who reside here in Qatar, where our lives were at risk because of the narcissistic and personal ambitions of a political operator who wants to throw the whole region into chaos.”

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Trump has ‘heated phone call’ with Netanyahu over strike targeting Hamas in Qatar

Published

23 hours ago

September 10, 2025

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Trump has 'heated phone call' with Netanyahu over strike targeting Hamas in Qatar

Donald Trump had a heated phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his military targeted Hamas inside Qatar, according to a report.

The American president told Mr Netanyahu on Tuesday that the decision to strike inside the US ally’s territory was not wise, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.

The Israeli prime minister responded by saying he had a brief window to launch the airstrike and took the opportunity, according to the newspaper.

A second call between the two leaders later that day was cordial, with Mr Trump asking Mr Netanyahu if the attack had been successful, the publication added.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of the Islamist group Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.

Hamas has said its top leaders survived the airstrike, but five members were killed, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al Hayya.

The Israeli military operation in Doha has been widely condemned internationally and was particularly sensitive as Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations which are trying to bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will”.

Qatar has hit back at him, saying his comments about the Gulf nation hosting a Hamas office were “reckless”.

Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, has said that if Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders on Tuesday, it would succeed next time.

“We have put terrorists on notice, wherever they may be… we’re going to pursue them, and we’re going to destroy those who will destroy us,” he said.

The airstrike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for Monday’s shooting at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem that killed six people.

In another development, Sir Keir Starmer has had talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Downing Street, with Mr Herzog saying they argued during a “tough meeting”.

PM condemns Israeli action

The prime minister has condemned the Israeli attack in Qatar, and raised the matter with the president, saying it was “completely unacceptable”.

“He said the strikes were a flagrant violation of a key partner’s sovereignty and do nothing to secure the peace we all desperately want to see,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Israel has been angered by Britain’s plans to join several other Western countries, including France and Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state later this month – unless Israel meets conditions including a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Things were said that were tough and strong, and clearly we can argue, because when allies meet, they can argue. We are both democracies,” Mr Herzog said at an event at Chatham House.

He also proposed offering a “fact-finding mission” to Israel, “sitting with us and studying the situation in Gaza on the humanitarian level”.

“Because we have full answers, and we are fully transparent,” he said.