UTTER CHAOS
● Truss ‘hanging by thread’ after disaster week
Taxes are not going to come down as much as people hope
by
LIZ Truss’s premiership was “hanging by a thread” last night as Tory MPS plot to get rid of her.
They want their backbench shop steward, Sir Graham Brady, to urge Ms Truss to go quietly.
On Friday she fired her friend, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, for delivering the mini-budget she ordered. She did another U-turn on taxes but that did not halt economic turmoil.
And her new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, faced flak from a guest on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday.
Miriam Margolyes, 81, on air paying tribute to fellow Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane, said: “When I saw him there, I just said ‘You’ve got a hell of a job, the best of luck!’ What I really wanted to say was f*** you! B ***** d! But you can’t say that.”
The clip was tweeted and after less than an hour it had more than 3,000 likes and almost 1,000 retweets.
Sir Graham, chairman of the 1922 Committee, has already warned Ms Truss three times of the peril she is in.
Even by last week, he had received about 120 letters of no confidence in the PM.
Party rules would have to change to oust Ms Truss and first Sir Graham must form a new 1922 executive on Tuesday.
They will then be in a position to send a delegation to No10 to tell Ms
Truss her time is up. The only things likely to stay his hand would be a rally in the pound when markets open tomorrow after Ms Truss saved £18billion by binning her corporation tax freeze and appointed Mr Hunt.
But even if the PM gets through the week, she has lost all authority. On Radio 4 yesterday ex-health Secretary Mr Hunt ditched her plan, calling her mini-budget a “mistake” – and rubbishing her campaign pledge of tax cuts. He said: “Taxes are not going to come down by as much as people hoped, and some taxes will have to go up.” The two are also at odds over Ms Truss’s plan to increase defence spending to 3% and Mr Hunt opposes fracking, which Ms Truss supports.
Ex-cabinet minister David Davis told GB News: “She’s going to have to give the new chancellor a chance, and allow him to do what he wants to do to see whether it works.”
Mr Hunt can deliver his own minibudget on October 31 – if Ms Truss lasts that long. Senior Tory and former Home Office adviser Claire Pearsall said Ms Truss must have a clear plan to get us out of this mess.
Richard Tice, of Reform UK, a right-wing populist party, said: “Liz Truss clinging to power would make her one of the most fraudulent PMS in British history.”
Now Tory MPS are grappling with getting a new PM in place without facing a general election, which could wipe them out. Based on polls, number
Electoral Calculus yesterday gave the Tories 85 seats and Labour 471 if there was an election now.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “The quicker this shambolic Government is gone, the quicker we can get on with the job of fixing their mess and rebuilding our country.”
Tories are trying to persuade Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, 52, to be their new leader and ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak to return to the Treasury. But if the PM digs her heels in it will need a change in the rules to allow MPS to bypass the party’s 172,000 members to install their chosen candidate in No10.
One MP warned: “Our members will be furious not to get a vote and they’ll go on strike.that means no one to canvass or deliver leaflets for us. But it’s the least worst option.” MPS have dismissed the idea of letting Ms Truss stay or a return of Mr Johnson. They may turn instead to Mr Sunak and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt. But there is likely to be a row over which should become PM.
Former No10 aide Dominic Cummings said the team around Ms Truss is so bad “it’s close to impossible that she can recover”. He said:
“Their actions resemble what you’d see if her worst enemies could brief on her behalf a few times per day.”
On Friday, Ms Truss ended her press conference after eight minutes and after taking only four questions from journalcrunchers ists – all about why she was not resigning. Veteran Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope said Ms Truss had turned the Conservative Party and the Government into laughing stocks. And Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said: “She’s crashed the British economy by using it as a guinea pig in her dangerous experiment with trickle-down economics and it’s working people paying the price.”
And former Tory leader William Hague said Ms Truss’s premiership now “hangs by a thread”. Economists said Ms Truss was mad to freeze Corporation Tax as investors were happy to accept the 25% rate, which is still lower than most other countries. And they said she still needs to find £25billion to pay for unfunded tax cuts.
Paul Dales of Capital Economics said: “Cancelling the cancellation will not be enough on its own to regain the confidence of the markets. It’s more a mini-budget mini-u-turn.”
And a survey of 500 small business owners showed that more than nine in ten want a General Election now.
Lewis Shaw of Shaw Financial Services said: “The current administration has no ideas or leadership and has torpedoed our economy.”
Ms Truss said that despite tearing up her mini-budget the UK is still on course for 2.5% growth under her plans. But the International Monetary Fund puts that figure at just 1.5%.
nigel.nelson@people.co.uk