The grim situation the Conservatives face has been underlined by a poll showing Labour leading by 13 points in the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ — suggesting Keith Starmer would seize a swathe of previously safe seats in heartlands…reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Liz Truss is battling to survive as ministers refused to rule out an humiliating U-turn on tax cuts to appease increasingly mutinous Tories.
The PM is desperately seeking solutions after a brutal showdown with her own MPs last night, where she was accused of: trashing the last 10 years” of work, Daily Mail reported.
She is being warned that she must rethink on key measures in Chancellor of Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, which helped trigger market chaos that has sent the pound plummeting and government borrowing costs soaring.
The grim situation the Conservatives face has been underlined by a poll showing Labour leading by 13 points in the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ – suggesting Keith Starmer would seize a swathe of previously safe seats in heartlands.
Some politicians are plotting to replace Truss with Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt or suggesting a comeback for Boris Johnson, Daily Mail reported.
Mordaunt tried to laugh off rumours that she is on manoeuvres, telling the Commons that her resting face is like a “bulldog chewing a wasp” and people “should not read too much into that”.
The panic is so deep that there are claims MPs are even mulling “bizarre” options, such as backing a snap election so that a Labour government has to deal with the worst of the cost of living crisis, Daily Mail reported.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly toured broadcast studios to try and cool the mood this morning, but fueled more speculation as he stopped short of saying plans to axe a rise in corporation tax will be kept.
Barely a month into the PM’s time in No. 10, Cleverly was also left begging Tories not to mount a coup.
“We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets,” he told Sky News.
“I think changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea politically and also economically. We are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy.”
Could Kwasi Kwarteng be the fall guy?
Meanwhile, BBC reported that any move to remove Kwarteng may prove counterproductive for Truss.
“The thing is, if she does that she removes a lightning rod, and you know what happens then? The lightning will hit her instead,” one MP sceptical of that idea said.
But others suggest the former Chancellor Sajid Javid could be brought in as a replacement and Ms Truss could attempt to recast her whole government and agenda, accepting that Plan A has imploded on contact with reality.
And others ponder Liz Truss’s future in Downing Street, acutely aware that removing a prime minister who doesn’t want to go isn’t easy, and particularly so when a divided party would need to unite around a single replacement to avoid a lengthy leadership contest lasting months.
Some talk of an “assembly of elders” as it was put to me, but then joke darkly that many of those elders either left Parliament or were thrown out of the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson.
They then ponder that with so many former ministers, including two former prime ministers on the backbenches, there is plenty of experience to be drawn on, if a Conservative government of all the talents could be cobbled together.
Meanwhile, a senior member of the government on Thursday rejected suggestions that Prime Minister Liz Truss should step down after lawmakers from her own party criticized her for economic policies that have sparked turmoil on financial markets.
During a stormy, private meeting with Conservative Party lawmakers on Wednesday evening, Ms. Truss was blasted for pursuing an economic growth strategy that benefits the wealthy at the expense of the working class voters who handed the party a landslide victory in 2019.
Truss is under pressure after her plan for 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) of unfunded tax cuts triggered steep declines in the pound and government bonds. Investors are concerned the plan may lead to unsustainable borrowing because the government hasn’t provided analysis on how it will affect debt levels.
“I think that changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea, not just politically but also economically,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in an interview with the BBC. “And we are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy.”
