Liz Truss’s new chancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out billions of pounds of savings to stabilise the public finances in an emergency statement on Monday.
Following his statement later this morning around 11am, the chancellor will address the Commons on Monday at 3.30pm ahead of the publication of his full, medium-term fiscal plan on 31 October.
The move is an attempt to reassure the financial markets and furious Tory MPs after weeks of turmoil in the wake of sacked chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s £43bn mini-budget tax giveaway.
Yet those efforts could come to nought this week if Tory MPs decide that a change of leader is required – with three members of the party already breaking ranks to call on her to go.
Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis all called on the PM to quit on Sunday, while other senior figures offered scathing criticism and predicted she may face.
Senior members of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers held talks on Friday evening on rule changes and the possible process involved in replacing Ms Truss, according to The Times.
1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady returns from holiday early today to count the number of letters of no-confidence already posted. It is thought Sir Graham could discuss the matter with the PM if a lot of letters are submitted this week.
Ms Truss is set to meet her cabinet and with moderate Tories in the One Nation group on Monday evening in a bid to save her premiership, with many MPs discuss whether opposition can build to force her removal within days.
Mr Blunt was the first MP to demand her exit on Sunday, telling Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show on Sunday: “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed.”
Mr Wallis said Ms Truss “no longer holds the confidence of this country”, while Mr Bridgen also called for her to quit, saying: “We cannot carry on like this.
Mr Hunt, who carried out a media blitz over the weekend, insisted that Ms Truss was still in charge – even as he made clear a complete U-turn on her ideas, with a tough package of tax rises and “difficult” spending cuts, were now needed.
Former transport secretary Grant Shapps – who has reportedly been floated as a potential successor to the PM – wrote in The Times that the party needed to “bin the infighting”, but did not explicitly back Ms Truss.
“We as a party have two years to get ourselves out of this hole, and it’s a deep hole when it comes to public confidence … MPs are overwhelmingly predisposed to supporting a competent leader.”
Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, an ally of Mr Hunt, told the BBC’s World This Weekend: “We’ve got to see what happens in the next few days. If she cannot do the job … I’m afraid that she will go.”
Tory MP Robert Halfon appeared on Sky News and declined to deny that MPs are considering installing a new leader. “We’re all talking to see what can be done about it.” He said Ms Truss’s and her team to “libertarian jihadists”.
Liz Truss will fight this week to save her premiership (Daniel Leal/PA)
The pound re-bounded and the price of government borrowing dropped following news the new chancellor would make an emergency fiscal statement.
The Treasury said Mr Hunt’s statement today – following talks over the weekend with the new PM – would “bringing forward measures from the medium-term fiscal plan that will support fiscal sustainability”.
Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell said Mr Hunt was “pre-announcing tough choices” in the hope that “markets reduce rates on government debt [so there is a] smaller fiscal hole to fill on 31st October.”
Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said he would welcome moves to reduce debt in the short-term amid a projected £60bn hole in public finances.
When asked what the gap between expenditure and revenue was, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We thought the answer was around £60bn when we did the sums a couple of weeks ago, and according to the press over the weekend the OBR broadly agrees; thinks it’s probably around £70bn.”
The IFS chief added: “There wasn’t room for £40-odd billion of tax cuts, and as we’ve seen there was a need to get a grip on public finances and probably do something even more than reversing those tax cuts.”
Earlier Mr Hunt told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that Ms Truss remains “in charge” and insisted voters can still put their faith in her.
“She’s listened. She’s changed. She’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack,” he said. “What we’re going to do is to show not just what we want, but how we’re going to get there.”
The presence of Mr Hunt was welcomed by many MPs, but many senior figures admitted it was an open question whether the PM could still survive the current crisis.
Sir Keir Starmer called on Ms Truss to appear before the Commons on Monday. The Labour leader quipped that Ms Truss is now “in office but not in power”.
It comes as a new poll, first published in The Guardian, predicted a landslide for Labour and wipe-out for the Tories. The Opinium poll using the MRP method put Labour on 411 seats compared to the Tories on 137.
In a sign of how divided the party is, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries hit out at her party colleagues. “I cannot imagine there’s one G7 country which thinks we’re worthy of a place at the table.”
“The removal of one electorally successful PM, the disgraceful plotting to remove another by those who didn’t get their way first time round is destabilising our economy and our reputation,” she tweeted.
