Now it’s Wallace versus Sunak...
Rebels urge Defence Secretary to stand, hoping he can unite the warring party if Liz Truss falls But Rishi’s backers insist only he can restore the Tories’ reputation for competence
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WHEN Ben Wallace pulled out of the Conservative leadership contest in July, he had already built a campaign team and secured the support of more than 25 MPs. But strains in his domestic life led him to conclude that the pressures of the job would have too great an impact on his family.
But friends say the Defence Secretary has now become much less categoric’ about not running, after being approached by colleagues to stand in any possible contest.
Mr Wallace, who regularly tops the rankings among Tory party members, is ‘rethinking’ his position because he believes that Rishi Sunak, the favourite to succeed Liz Truss, ‘cannot unite the party’.
This comes as leaders of mutinous backbenchers told The Mail on Sunday that more than 100 Tory MPs are prepared to write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, submitting a motion of no confidence in Ms Truss. Sir Graham is under pressure to change the rule which stops a leader being challenged for a year after their election – or risk being ousted as chairman.
The rebels, led by former Ministers Gavin Williamson, Grant Shapps and Julian Smith, are aiming for 125 names. Any contest is likely to be restricted to MPs because another vote by party members would take too long.
Ms Truss tried to save her faltering Premiership on Friday by sacking Chancellor
Kwasi Kwarteng, following weeks of economic turmoil in the wake of the tax-cutting mini-budget he unveiled in September.
But Mr Kwarteng’s replacement, Jeremy Hunt, was accused of mounting a ‘silent coup’ yesterday after effectively ripping up Ms Truss’s policy platform by saying taxes will have to rise and ‘efficiencies’ would be needed in an effort to balance the books.
Mr Hunt could also delay a penny cut in income tax for a year – in a return to Mr Sunak’s leadership pledge. The reversal of the flagship announcement would be the latest in a series of Government U-turns.
No10 has also been forced to deny claims that Mr Hunt was the second choice for the job after former Chancellor Sajid Javid.
Mr Kwarteng is understood to have told friends that the PM has bought herself only ‘a few weeks’ by sacking him and that MPs are ‘circling the wagons’ to remove her.
As Westminster prepares for another tumultuous week: l The MoS learned that Mr Kwarteng argued against the disastrous plan to announce a cut to the top 45p rate of tax but was over-ruled by Ms Truss; l Sources claimed that when she sacked Mr Kwarteng, Ms Truss said, ‘They are coming for me’ – referring to the plotters who want to oust her; l Allies of the PM claimed the plotting was part of a ‘vendetta by a group of former public schoolboys who can’t get over the fact that they were beaten by a woman’; l A senior Tory MP predicted the party would split if Mr Sunak was ‘forced’ on the public by MPs; l Former leadership contender Penny Mordaunt was said to be ‘stepping up’ her courting of colleagues ahead of another pitch at the job; l One faction of MPs astonishingly argued for the return of Theresa May as a caretaker leader; l Ms Truss tried to regain some political momentum by preparing to introduce new anti-strike laws.
A friend of Mr Wallace said: ‘Ben is concerned that the economic problems mean the PM could U-turn on her pledge to increase defence spending to three per cent of GDP by 2030. He is very concerned that we could be on the brink of a global war, and wants to make sure that the country is well protected.’
The friend added: ‘Rishi is too divisive, and wasn’t popular enough with the members. Ben is a taxcutting deficit hawk and would help to reclaim the party’s reputation for economic competence.’
Mr Wallace has been praised for his handling of the Ukraine crisis, which boosted his popularity among MPs and across the wider party.
Allies of Ms Truss claim that Mr Sunak is helping to stir the plotting – which is denied by his aides – and are furious about the mauling she received at last week’s meeting of the 1922 Committee.
Mr Sunak has told friends that before Liz Truss became PM, ‘the
Tories had one big asset, a reputation for competence, and one problem, that we were the nasty party. Now we just have the problem’.
One ally of Ms Truss said: ‘This is a vendetta driven by former public schoolboys who can’t get over the fact that they were beaten by a woman.’
Mr Sunak attended the prestigious Winchester College, although Mr Williamson, Mr Shapps and Mr Smith all attended state schools.
The ally added: ‘If they keep on plotting to install Rishi they will just end up with Boris again.’
Upping the ante against the plotters, a Downing Street source said: ‘The people who plotted against one PM are now trying to get rid of another. They do not care about our economic prosperity or the fate of the markets or the situation in Ukraine. They know who they are. They don’t care about anything except their own jobs and careers.
‘We owe it to the British people to focus on them and their needs. And that is what we are doing. The Prime Minister and the new Chancellor are helping people with the cost of energy. It is time the plotters thought about who they work for: it is the British people.’
One senior Tory MP predicted ‘the party will split’ if anti-Truss colleagues try to force Mr Sunak on the party. He told the MoS: ‘This could result in an irreversible split that would keep the Tories out of power for a generation.’
The former Minister angrily named Michael Gove and Grant
Shapps as being at the heart of ‘a clique’ agitating to replace Ms Truss with Mr Sunak.
Meanwhile, No10 has furiously denied claims that Mr Javid rejected Ms Truss’s overtures for him to succeed Mr Kwarteng, with a source close to her saying she wanted to emulate the close working relationship between David Cameron and George Osborne.
‘The PM settled on Jeremy quickly. There was no plan B,’ said the source. ‘The PM and Jeremy have worked together closely for years and as Foreign Secretary Liz would often call him for advice.’
The source added: ‘Jeremy is a details person and he understands that we face two choices: Liz or
‘The plotters do not care about our prosperity’
Starmer. What’s done is done and the PM has delivered an enormous energy package that has stopped people from freezing to death this winter as well as roundly applauded tax cuts for the lowest paid workers in society. Jeremy will help balance the ticket with the PM and help settle things with the markets and with the party.’
An ally of Ms Truss said the decision to sack Mr Kwarteng was ‘immensely difficult’. The ally said: ‘The PM felt a deep personal sadness, but senior party figures had
encouraged her to move the Chancellor on. She acted in the national interest to stave off a worsening market situation.
‘She was boxed in. The Treasury had briefed that she should U-turn and the markets spiked. The pension funds were essentially playing roulette with the economy. Pension funds got themselves hooked on cheap cash and now it’s run out. What’s more, high street banks are overcharging customers way above the base rate. Where’s [moneysaving expert] Martin Lewis now as millions of people are ripped off by greedy banks?’
A friend added: ‘We’ve borrowed too much for too long. The cost of servicing our debt is going up and up.’ A No 10 source added that Government
plans to crack down on union strikes, being published this week, ‘could be a game changer’.
In a press conference on Friday, Ms Truss said she was scrapping her plan to freeze corporation tax – and it will rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent as previously planned.
Mr Hunt admitted on Saturday that the Government had ‘made mistakes’ and had been ‘flying blind’ with its economic plan.
He said: ‘No Chancellor can control the markets, but what I can do is show that we can control our tax and spending plans and that is going to need some very difficult decisions on both spending and tax.
‘That is what I must do now so that people who are worried about their mortgage costs going up, that are worried about how they’re going to get through winter [with] the cost of living crisis, people in the NHS who are worried about the pressures they’re facing, can be reassured that the fundamental stability that they need from the Government, and that they expect the Government to provide, is there.
‘There were mistakes. It was a mistake when we’re going to be asking for difficult decisions across the board to cut the rate of tax paid by the very wealthiest.’
He denied that he had ambitions to become Prime Minister himself, saying his leadership ambitions have been ‘clinically excised’.