Which Tory MPs are calling for Truss to go – and how could the PM be ousted?
Liz Truss’s premiership is hanging by a thread after a tumultuous first six weeks in office.
The prime minister sacked Kwasi Kwarteng in an attempt to quell the unrest on Conservative benches.
But new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has since axed almost all of her ill-fated mini-budget – less than a month after it was unveiled.
Chancellor Hunt urges Tories to ‘give Truss a chance’
On Monday, Ms Truss apologised for the mistakes she made over the government’s economic policies and said she intends to lead the Conservative Party into the next election.
But, ultimately, this may not be her choice if MPs move against her – and five of her own backbenchers have already done just that.
Crispin Blunt
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‘Blindingly obvious Truss must go’
The Conservative MP for Reigate was the first MP out of the blocks to call for the prime minister to resign following her failed mini-budget last month.
Mr Blunt, a justice minister in the early years of David Cameron’s premiership, told veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil that Ms Truss should go “now” as “the game is up” after just six weeks.
Describing the “shocking few weeks” for the party, Mr Blunt told Mr Neil’s programme on Channel 4: “I would be very, very surprised if there are people dying in a ditch to keep Liz Truss as our prime minister.
“What we need to effect is a transition to a combination of the talents of Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Jeremy Hunt in the top leadership positions in the party.
“They probably need to sit down and have a conversation between themselves about how to best effect the chance. And I think that the collective position from those three would command very great support among the parliamentary and among the party in the country who are just desperate to get this sorted out.”
Andrew Bridgen
The Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire was the second of Ms Truss’s backbenchers to call for her to resign.
Mr Bridgen, who supported Ms Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak in the leadership campaign over the summer, announced his position in a scathing blog post which declared that Ms Truss had “run out of friends”.
“Liz has sunk her own leadership and her predecessor’s potential comeback at the same time, all in record time,” he wrote.
“Beleaguered Liz Truss has now run out of friends. She only ever had the support of a third of the elected MPs. We should expect more fireworks in Parliament this week.
“Unless this is resolved quickly, we are heading for a general election.”
Beth Rigby analysis: ‘It can’t go on like this’ – it looks to be over for PM Truss
But Mr Bridgen is not a stranger to the no confidence system.
Back in May, he became the twenty-seventh Conservative politician to tell Boris Johnson to quit over the partygate scandal – a series of events held in Downing Street and across Whitehall in breach of coronavirus rules.
Jamie Wallis
The MP for Bridgend became the third Conservative MP to break ranks by calling for Ms Truss to quit.
Mr Wallis, who has been on the government’s backbenches since 2019, said the PM had “undermined Britain’s economic credibility and fractured our party irreparably”.
Sharing a letter to the PM on social media, 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 prime minister to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country.”
Earlier this year, Mr Wallis released a highly personal statement saying he wants to transition to be a woman.
In his letter to Ms Truss, he called out senior members of the party for “exploiting the issue of transgender rights” during the leadership contest.
“Observing the hostile nature of the debate and then witnessing increased hostility towards transgender people on social media and in-person was distressing,” he wrote.
Mr Wallis acknowledged that “mistakes can be undone” but said he did not believe this was possible with Ms Truss as leader.
Angela Richardson
The MP for Guildford became the fourth Conservative MP to call for Ms Truss to depart Number 10, telling the Telegraph newspaper that it would be “better for the party and for the country to have a change in leadership at the top”.
Ms Richardson, who was also elected in 2019, said Ms Truss should resign and then a truncated leadership election should get underway “very quickly”.
“Whoever comes up top in the ballot, there should be a coronation. MPs should exercise common sense about that. This is a very pivotal point in time where mucking around is just not in the national interest,” Ms Richardson said.
“It could be the case that everybody who is frustrated with the PM wants a different outcome – our biggest difficulty is settling on someone.”
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She continued: “If you think about the significance of what has just been announced by the chancellor today, this feels like even more of an unwinding of what she put together with Kwasi.
“We should never have been in this position in the first place. And now it’s very hard for me to see how she can credibly continue.”
Ms Richardson has previously spoken up against the government, having resigned from her role as an aide to former housing secretary Michael Gove in January amid growing discontent within the party.
Sir Charles Walker
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‘I don’t think her position is recoverable’
The outgoing MP for Broxbourne became the fifth MP to publicly call for Ms Truss to go, telling Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that the PM’s position is “untenable”.
Sir Charles, who has said he will stand down at the next election, said Ms Truss has “put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry”.
He continued: “We don’t need a disruptor in No 10. We need a uniter. I just think… it is just a situation that is… it can only be remedied I think, with a new prime minister.”
Asked whether Ms Truss could stay in her position, Sir Charles said: “Look, the prime minister has had a very torrid six weeks.
“Personally, I don’t think her position is recoverable. She would obviously take a different view.
“But if you read the mood of the parliamentary party, she has lost authority and you can’t lead a party if you don’t have some authority. She doesn’t have much of that.”
Sir Charles said he believes Ms Truss has “a week or two” left of her premiership.
He continued: “I’m just so cross. I’ve just had enough. And I think quite a few of my colleagues have had enough.”
How could Truss be ousted?
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Tories want Truss out – and Boris in
Tories want Truss out – and Boris in
Under Conservative party rules, a new leader cannot be challenged through official procedures for at least a year after entering office. For Ms Truss, this would be until September 2023.
However, Conservative MPs who are disgruntled with Ms Truss’s leadership are still able to submit letters of no confidence in her to chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, Sir Graham Brady.
It is thought that if many letters are received, Sir Graham could have a mandate to change the rules of the leadership election process so that one could take place imminently.
If senior Conservatives and the chief whip were to find that Ms Truss had lost the support of the majority of her party in parliament, it would be difficult for her to fight on.
A rule change could potentially be agreed for Tory MPs to draw up a shortlist of two candidates from the backbenches who would then agree between themselves who would be PM and who would be deputy without going to the Conservative members.
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Another option is that, as discontent from the backbenches grows, Ms Truss decides to fall on her sword and resign.
The Conservatives would then have to try and mobilise to unite behind a successor as quickly as possible.
Ms Truss could also call a general election to let the general public seal her fate, but would be unlikely to do so imminently with the Conservatives doing so badly in recent polls.
World
Hamas agrees to release all remaining Israeli hostages – but seeks further talks on rest of Trump’s peace deal
Hamas has said it agrees to release Israeli hostages, dead and alive, under Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
The group also said it wants to engage in negotiations to discuss further details, including handing over “administration of the enclave to a Palestinian body of independent autocrats”.
However, other aspects of the 20-point plan, it said, would require further consultation among Palestinians.
The announcement came just hours after President Trump had set a new deadline of Sunday to respond to his proposals, backed by the Arab nations.
The president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the plan at the White House on Monday.
Israel agreed to the terms, which include an immediate ceasefire; the release of all hostages; Hamas disarming; a guarantee no one will be forced to leave Gaza; and a governing “peace panel” including Sir Tony Blair.
And on Friday night, a statement from Hamas confirmed “its approval to release all prisoners of the occupation – whether alive or the remains of the deceased – according to the exchange framework included in President Trump’s proposal”.
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Trump’s Sunday deadline threat
The group also said it was ready to engage in negotiations through mediators and that it appreciated “Arab, Islamc and international efforts, as well as the efforts of US President Donald Trump”.
But, Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera news the group would not disarm “before the Israeli occupation ends”.
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In a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr Trump said if Hamas did not agree to the peace deal by Sunday evening “all hell” would break out.
Ramping up pressure
He had posted: “An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time. Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”
There has been no official response from the US and Israel to the partial acceptance.
Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March.
It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for two and a half months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.
Experts determined Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it.
An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.
Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.
World
Colombia is high on Trump’s troublemaker list – but coca farmers will keep producing to match US demand
“Listen man, we’re a narco state, it’s just how it is, if you want to see drug deals, I’ll show you drug deals – it’s Colombia.”
I’d only asked one of our Colombian producers in passing if it was possible to see drugs being traded on the streets of Medellin. I didn’t realise it was that simple.
Medellin is synonymous with drugs and cartels. The home of perhaps the most famous of all the drug lords, Pablo Escobar, it seems to revel in its notoriety.
There are pictures of Escobar everywhere, on posters, on caps, and on t-shirts. There are even guided tours to his grave, and a museum in his honour.
Stuart Ramsay speaks with a coca farmer, who earn very little from growing the crop
This is where the big business drug cartels were born, invented by Escobar himself, the original Latin American “Godfather”.
In an infamous district in Medellin, we were instantly confronted with the sounds of dealers on the streets shouting out their products for sale as we drove through.
“Cocaine! Pills! Ecstasy! Tusi!” they shouted. All available to a traffic jam of cars waiting to buy.
Motorcycle delivery drivers queued to make the pick-up for their clients waiting in high-end apartments and nightclubs elsewhere in the city, while buyers on foot discreetly scored their drugs, before moving on.
Medellin was the home of Pablo Escobar and drugs are widely traded on its streets
‘Narco’ culture
It was chaotic and noisy, a place where lookouts use whistles to send signals to the dealers.
Two toots mean it’s all clear, a single toot is a warning – it means the police are nearby.
In the middle of this big open-air market for drugs, dimly lit restaurants and cafes served dinner. We passed one café where we saw a family sat at a table outside, celebrating a woman’s 70th birthday.
This neighbourhood runs a 24-hour drug selling market alongside the usual shops and cafes that spill over on to the pavement.
It is not illegal to grow coca, only to use it to produce cocaine
Although Colombia has a long history and fascination with “narco” culture and drug-taking, its immediate problem is that President Donald Trump has launched a war on Latin American drug cartels, manufacturers, and the nations the drugs come from – and through.
Venezuela is at the top of his hit list; he has launched strikes on boats off the Venezuelan coast that he says were carrying drugs. He has boosted American military presence in the Caribbean – sending ships, marines, helicopters, drones and jets into the region.
There is speculation he may be looking for regime change in Venezuela, and that the war on drugs is a front to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power, claiming the Venezuelan government is basically a drug cartel. Something they of course deny.
This coca plantation was hacked into the rainforest on the border of Colombia and Peru
None of this bodes well for Venezuela’s neighbour Colombia, indeed President Trump has made it clear Colombia is high on his list of troublesome nations.
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There are other countries on his list, like Mexico, that he says has demonstrated willingness to clean up their act and take the war to Mexico’s deadly cartels.
Mr Trump’s gripe with Colombia isn’t necessarily that its society has a relaxed attitude to drug use – it is widespread across all classes – no, his problem is that Colombia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine in the world, and it feeds the biggest market, which is the United States of America.
Coca plantations are hidden miles away from other people in the Amazon
Hidden away, miles from people
It seems that the president’s view is that the supplier is the problem, not necessarily the user.
Cocaine is extracted from the coca leaf, which is grown in abundance in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.
Growing the coca plant in these countries is not illegal, and the leaf itself is often used for other purposes. The plant only becomes illegal when it’s used for cocaine production.
I wanted to meet the farmers who grow coca to find out if they are the masterminds of a multi-billion-pound international drugs business, or just farmers meeting international demand.
My journey began just after dawn in pouring rain on the Amazon River in Colombia.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the plantations are hidden away in remote areas, miles away from people.
Stuart Ramsay in the rainforest
We travelled for hours in the rain, on a small boat with a guide, passing indigenous communities who have nothing to do with the business hiding in their forest.
The river narrowed as we got closer to our destination, and five hours later, after navigating through broken tree trunks and low hanging branches, we arrived at an eight hectare coca plantation hacked into the rainforest bordering Colombia and Peru.
The crop, which is two-and-a-half years old, is hidden by the trees and the river.
They are about to start harvesting it, but it’s incredible just how many leaves they need.
The farmer says that for every 70 grams of cocaine produced, the cartel producers need 30 kilograms of leaves.
Colombia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine
Only way to provide for his family
That’s a lot of picking – and the farmer will earn just $7 for those 30 kilograms of leaves.
The cocaine business might be incredibly lucrative for the cartels that control it, but at the very bottom the farmers hardly get paid a thing.
And though he is worried about getting caught, the farmer I meet sees it as the only way to provide for his family.
“For me it’s very valuable, it’s my sustenance, the way for sustaining life,” he told me.
“We are aware that illegal processing isn’t good for anybody, not exactly, you can’t say I am doing this, and this is good for people, no, this harms the entire community, everyone,” he explained when I asked him if he was at all conflicted about his crop.
“But we all make sacrifices, and we struggle to make our way in life.”
It’s hard to believe that the global business of manufacturing and shipping cocaine around the world all starts with these fairly innocuous looking coca leaves.
And whatever Donald Trump says, they will keep producing as long as users in America, Europe, and indeed the world, demand it.
Several boats from a large aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza have been boarded by Israeli authorities – with campaigner Greta Thunberg among those removed.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is made up of more than 40 civilian boats with an estimated 500 people onboard, and is trying to break Israel’s sea blockade.
But the attempt appears to have been thwarted – at least for now – by about 20 Israeli ships.
Israel’s foreign ministry said “several vessels” had been “safely stopped” with passengers being taken to an Israeli port.
“Greta and her friends are safe and healthy,” a spokesperson added.
A livestream showed some of the boats in the flotilla as the incident unfolded
A video showed Thunberg sitting on deck while being handed a water bottle and raincoat.
It’s so far unclear how many boats have been intercepted.
The flotilla ignored requests to turn back and organisers said the interception was illegal as it happened in “international waters” around 80 miles off the coast.
Greg Stoker, a US veteran who’s involved, said water cannon had been used on some of the boats.
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Gaza-bound flotilla ‘aggressively circled’ by warship
The flotilla, which set off from Barcelona and scheduled to arrive this morning, was flanked by NATO warships for some of the journey.
The attempt has received a lot of attention, with Nelson Mandela’s grandson, a former Barcelona mayor and several European legislators taking part.
Israel said the mission was violating a lawful blockade and is only intended to provoke. It also said it had offered a way to deliver any aid peacefully through safe channels.
Organisers said the night-time interception was the second time the flotilla had been approached on Wednesday, after “warships” earlier encircled two of its boats.
The flotilla set off from Barcelona on 31 August and later stopped in Sicily
Last week, drones also reportedly dropped stun grenades and itching powder on some vessels.
Israel didn’t comment, but has said it will use any means to stop the boats getting to Gaza.
Protests have broken out in Italy and Turkey over the treatment of the flotilla.
Italy’s largest union has called a general strike tomorrow, saying the “attack on civilian vessels carrying Italian citizens represents an extremely serious matter”.
Turkey’s foreign ministry called Israel’s interception an “attack” and “an act of terror” that endangered lives of those on board.
Gaza has been dealing with severe food shortages due to the ongoing war.
Thunberg and activist Saif Abukeshek. Pic: Reuters/Nacho Doce
Agencies such as the UN accused Israel of deliberately slowing the delivery of supplies – something it denies.
However, the aid being carried by the flotilla is said to only be a symbolic amount of food and medicine.
An aid boat carrying Thunberg was also intercepted near Gaza in June, with the Swede deported alongside others.
Israel put in it sea blockade when Hamas took control of the territory in 2007 and there have been several attempts to break it since then.
Some of those involved in the latest campaign have said they will start a hunger strike if they’re detained.
Read more:
Hamas’s first reaction to peace plan is telling
What Sky correspondents make of Trump plan
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Will Trump’s Gaza plan bring peace?
Meanwhile, all eyes remain on Hamas and whether it will accept Donald Trump’s peace plan to end the two-year war, sparked by the group’s terror attack on Israel.
The 20-point proposal was unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House this week.
Hamas said it would study the plan and consult with other factions, but didn’t give an indication of when it would deliver its verdict.
Mr Trump said on Tuesday he would give the group “three or four days”.
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