Liz Truss under pressure as three Tory MPs publicly call for her to quit – and Labour demand she faces parliament

Published

2 years ago

October 17, 2022

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Labour has called for Liz Truss to face parliament today after three Tory MPs broke ranks to demand that she quits.

The prime minister is facing calls to resign from within her own party just six weeks after entering Number 10, following the economic turmoil in the wake of the mini-budget.

Tory MPs Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis have all publicly stated they believe she should resign, as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Ms Truss of being “in office but not in power”.

The Daily Mail reported that Tory MPs will try to oust Ms Truss this week, with more than 100 ready to submit letters of no confidence.

It comes after the PM dramatically ditched a major chunk of the mini-budget and sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt, in a bid to restore credibility.

The new chancellor has signalled that the country could be facing a package of tax rises and spending cuts, in a move that would make a complete reversal of Ms Truss’s promised economic vision.

Friday saw Ms Truss give a brief news conference to explain her latest U-turn, but Sir Keir said it “completely failed to answer any of the questions the public has”.

He said: “Mortgages are rising and the cost of living crisis is being felt ever more acutely. The Conservative government is currently the biggest threat to the security and the finances of families across the country.

“That’s why the prime minister must come to parliament on Monday, to explain what she plans to do to turn the situation around.

“If the prime minister won’t take questions from journalists, Liz Truss must at least take them from MPs representing the families whose livelihoods she’s putting at risk.”

MPs believe it is simply not sustainable for Truss to remain as PM

I was told by a cabinet source Liz Truss had no option but to sack Kwasi Kwarteng because it was made clear to her he’d lost the confidence of markets and her only hope of steadying the ship was removing him.

But what follows from that is obvious: as a second cabinet source put it to me over weekend, what the markets do it coming few days will be critical for Truss too.

The firewall provided by the chancellor is now burnt through and if there’s no improvement, the signal will be that the is problem is her.

Politically the view settling amongst MPs is that it’s simply not sustainable for her to remain as prime minister.

All eyes are now on Sir Graham Brady, the only person who knows when a leadership election has been triggered, to see what he does. Party rules say Truss has a year’s grace, but they can change the rules.

But there’s also a view, shared by some Truss rivals and backers alike, that the PM has bought a bit of time.

As one cabinet minister told me: “Despite the hysteria, the reality is we need to calm down, let Liz decide her new priorities and Jeremy deliver his budget. Nothing will be gained in the next 14 days by more fratricide.”

But the point is, as Conservative Home’s Paul Goodman put it, it’s over for Liz Truss whether she’s pushed out or not.

Her economic project is finished and her authority is gone. And that makes if very hard to see how she can lead the party into a general election.

I’ll be watching the markets and Sir Graham very closely on Monday.

If the prime minister does not agree to make a statement later, Labour could try to force her to come to the Commons.

‘The game is up’

Ms Truss and the new chancellor met in Chequers on Sunday, as the pair begin work on what will effectively be a new budget on 31 October.

But Mr Blunt, who was the first Tory MP to publicly call for Ms Truss to resign, said “the game is up” for the prime minister.

He told Sky News it was “blindingly obvious” that Ms Truss had to go and backed former chancellor Rishi Sunak to replace her.

“The principal emotions of people watching her, doing her best to present, is some combination of pity, contempt or anger,” he said.

“I’m afraid it just won’t wash and we need to make a change.”

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen also called for Ms Truss to quit as PM, saying “our country, its people and our party deserve better”.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Jamie Wallis tweeted: “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.”

However Ms Truss received the backing of her former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt who said the “country needs stability, not a soap opera”.

Writing in the Telegraph, the leader of the Commons told her colleagues that the “national mission” is clear but said it “needs pragmatism and teamwork”.

“It needs us to work with the prime minister and her new chancellor. It needs all of us,” she wrote.

Could Tory Party change rules to oust Truss?

Asked how the party could get rid of Ms Truss, Mr Blunt, who is standing down at the next election, 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.”

The former justice minister later added: “If the issue does have to be forced, a way can be found to force it.”

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Under current Conservative Party rules, a confidence vote in a leader cannot take place until they have been in power for at least a year, so she is theoretically safe until next September.

However, there has been talk among MPs of the powerful 1922 backbench committee of Tory MPs of changing the rules to reduce that buffer period.

If enough MPs submit no confidence letters in the PM, then the 1922 executive may have little choice but to change them.

The committee’s treasurer, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, told Sky News the rules would only be changed if “an overwhelming majority of the party wish us to do that”.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries said bypassing the rules in a bid to remove Ms Truss would make the system a “laughing stock”.

She tweeted: “The ’22 rules were put in place to act as a barrier against the regicidal nature of Conservative MPs.

“What is the point of the ’22 committee if the rules mean absolutely nothing?

“It’s a laughing stock and not fit for purpose if it makes it up as it goes along!”

Former chancellor George Osborne has predicted Ms Truss is unlikely to still be in Downing Street by Christmas.

He called her a “PINO – prime minister in name only” and said Ms Truss is “hiding in Number 10” as pressure mounts.

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UK

Gatwick Airport: Police release two people who were detained amid security incident as South Terminal reopens

Published

2 hours ago

November 23, 2024

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Gatwick Airport: Police release two people who were detained amid security incident as South Terminal reopens

Two people detained during a security incident at Gatwick Airport have been allowed to continue their journeys after a suspect package saw a “large part” of the South Terminal evacuated.

The terminal was closed for hours after the discovery of a “suspected prohibited item” in a passenger’s luggage sparked an emergency response. It reopened at around 3.45pm.

Officers from the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team “made the package safe” before handing the airport back to its operator, Sussex Police said.

Their statement continued: “Two people who were detained while enquiries were ongoing have subsequently been allowed to continue their journeys.

“There will remain an increased police presence in the area to assist with passengers accessing the South Terminal for onward travel.”

The force also thanked the public and airport staff for their patience while the incident was ongoing.

Earlier the airport, which is the UK’s second busiest, said the terminal was evacuated after a “security incident”.

“The earlier security alert has now been resolved and cleared by police,” it later said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

“The South Terminal is reopening to staff and will be open to passengers shortly.”

Gatwick said some flights were cancelled while others were delayed.

It said passengers should contact their airlines for any updates on flights.

Footage on social media taken outside the airport showed crowds of travellers heading away from the terminal building.

“Arrived at London Gatwick for routine connection. Got through customs to find out they’re evacuating the entire airport,” one passenger said.

“Even people through security are being taken outside. Trains shut down,” another passenger added, who said “thousands” of people were forced to leave.

Another passenger said people near the gates were being told to stay there and not go back to the departure lounge.

People outside the airport were handed blankets and water, passengers told Sky News.

The airport said its North Terminal was still operating normally.

Gatwick Express said its trains did not call at Gatwick Airport during the police response, but the airport said trains would start calling there again once the terminal was fully reopened.

More than 600 flights were due to take off or land at Gatwick on Friday, amounting to more than 121,000 passenger seats, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

UK

Starmer says UK will ‘set out a path’ to raise defence spending to 2.5%

Published

5 hours ago

November 23, 2024

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Starmer says UK will 'set out a path' to raise defence spending to 2.5%

The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.

Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.

There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.

Ukraine war latest: Follow live updates

A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.

They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.

“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.

“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”

The defence review will also be published in the spring.

While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.

They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.

With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.