Let me fight on – PM’s desperate appeal to MPs

LIZ Truss last night told her backbench MPs that she wants to fight the 2024 general election – but the number of plotters against her is growing by the day.

The Prime Minister appeared before the One Nation group of Tory MPs, where she apologised for her mistakes. MP Simon Hoare said he was ‘struck by her sincerity... she was candid that mistakes had been made’.

But not everyone was as kind. ‘It is the first time I have heard a corpse deliver its own eulogy,’ one attendee reportedly said.

And the circling plotters spent yesterday sharpening their knives, trying to work out how best to depose of a leader elected only last month. Two more Tory backbenchers went public with calls for Miss Truss to quit, bringing the total to five.

Tories Sir Charles Walker and Angela Richardson said the PM’s position was no longer tenable.

‘She has put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry,’ Sir Charles said. ‘We don’t need a disruptor in No 10. We need a uniter.’ Miss Richardson said she did not believe ‘it’s tenable that she can stay in her position any longer’.

Privately, many more MPs believe her time is up. Others are unimpressed with her choice of a replacement Chancellor. ‘If the answer is Jeremy Hunt, what’s the question?’ one asked.

One former Cabinet minister said they believed Miss Truss would be removed from power by next week at the latest.

They said they believed about two dozen letters of no confidence had already been sent to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the

1922 Committee. ‘ There’s dozens more ready to put them in,’ they said, adding: ‘what’s the point of this PM? Colleagues are seriously looking at the fact they may be losing their seats and won’t sit on their hands.’

Last night Miss Truss hosted an informal reception in Downing Street for her Cabinet members.

Privately, no 10 is worried that Defence Secretary Ben wallace – who is fearful of cuts to his budget – could quit and make a tilt for the top. He has issued what amounts to an ultimatum to the PM and Mr Hunt over her promise to increase military spending to 3per cent of GDP.

A Cabinet source said there was a ‘general frustration’ among ministers at the ‘short-sightedness of those seeking to destabilise the party, and the country’.

They added: ‘It’s very much day by day at this point – but every day is a win.’