Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss
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Senior Conservatives will hold talks on a “rescue mission” that would see the swift removal of Liz Truss as leader, after the new chancellor Jeremy Hunt dramatically tore up her economic package and signalled a new era of austerity.
A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister’s future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now “in office but not in control”. Some are threatening to publicly call on Truss to stand down after the implosion of her tax-cutting programme.
In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies tonight warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were “finished as a party” if they toppled a second leader in just a few months.
However, support for Truss is also evaporating inside the cabinet, with members keeping in close touch with her critics. “She is in the departure lounge now and she knows that,” said a former minister. “It is a case now of whether she takes part in the process and goes to some extent on her own terms, or whether she tries to resist and is forced out.”
Another MP said it “would be grotesque” to allow Truss to endure another appearance at prime minister’s questions in the Commons on Wednesday after a series of humiliating U-turns, the sacking of ally Kwasi Kwarteng and the abandonment of her economic prospectus.
Between 15 and 20 former ministers and other senior MPs have been invited to a “dinner of grown-ups”, convened by leading supporters of Rishi Sunak, to plan how and when to remove Truss and install Sunak and fellow leadership contender Penny Mordaunt as a unity pairing.
Biden: UK’s Truss’ original economic plan was a mistake
Meanwhile, U.S. President Biden says he was not the only one who thought British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ original economic plan, which has led to a steep dive in the value of the pound, was a mistake.
“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake.” He told reporters during a stop at an ice cream shop in Oregon as he helped campaign for Tina Kotek, who is running for Governor or Oregon.
The White House has refrained from commenting on Truss’ problems and when asked about the strength of the U.S. Dollar, Biden said, “I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar. I’m concerned about the rest of the world.”
