Three Tory MPs have publicly called for Liz Truss resign as a new poll predicts a Labour landslide victory which would see former prime minister Boris Johnson and Priti Patel among Conservatives losing their seat.
It comes after Andrew Bridgen and senior Tory MP Crispin Blunt also called for the prime minister to go heaping more pressure on Liz Truss.
“We cannot carry on like this. Our country, its people and our party deserve better,” the North West Leicestershire MP told The Daily Telegraph.
Senior Tory Crispin Blunt and Andrew also called for the prime minister to resign telling her “the game is up.”
A new Opinium poll by the Trades Union Congress poll forecasted a “1997 style” landslide victory for the Labour party with 10 current Cabinet ministers to lose their seats, including new chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
It would be the party’s worst election performance in history as they’re projected to only reach 156 seats.
UK to be plunged into recession until summer 2023, economists warn
The UK will enter a recession until summer 2023, economists have warned.
Britain’s economy is expected to shrink around 0.2 per cent each quarter from October through to June next year.
This prolonged economic decline will result in a 0.3 per cent fall in gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 as a whole, the EY Item Club predicted in its autumn forecast. An economy enters a technical recession when its GDP falls for two or more consecutive quarters.
The economic forecasting group has significantly downgraded its previous summer forecast which estimated the economy would grow by 1 per cent in 2023.
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UK to be plunged into recession until summer 2023, economists warn
Britain’s economy is expected to shrink around 0.2 per cent each quarter from October through to June next year
NHS facing mass staff walkouts this winter as unions hold voters on coordinated strike action
The NHS is facing the most disruptive strike action in a generation this winter, as healthcare unions prepare to coordinate walkouts for maximum effect.
Motions being debated at the TUC annual congress in Brighton this week will commit unions in the health service to working together in pursuit of a better deal on pay and conditions.
Speaking to The Independent, Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said coordination could be extended to other sectors, such as transport, with the possibility of a national day of action to kick off an escalating series of time-limited health strikes.
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Nadine Dorries, amid speculation that Tory MPs could bypass the rules of the backbench 1922 Committee in a bid to remove Liz Truss, suggested that such a system was a “laughing stock” if it could be ignored.
She tweeted: “The ‘22 rules were put in place to act as a barrier against the regicidal nature of Conservative MPs.
“What is the point of the ‘22 committee if the rules mean absolutely nothing?
“It’s a laughing stock and not fit for purpose if it makes it up as it goes along!”
New poll reveals landslide victory for Labour
A new Opinium poll by the Trades Union Congress poll forecasted a “1997 style” landslide victory for the Labour party with 10 current Cabinet ministers to lose their seats, including new chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Therese Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
It would be the party’s worst election performance in history as they’re projected to only reach 156 seats.
Shadow Commons leader calls on Liz Truss to do the ‘decent thing’ and face MPs
Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow leader of the House of Commons, said she wanted Liz Truss to do the “decent thing” and turn up to face MPs on Monday.
Labour has called on Ms Truss to come before the Commons, as the Prime Minister seeks to restore her authority with a new set of economic plans and a new Chancellor.
Ms Debbonaire, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour, said: “I’d like to think that the Prime Minister of this country having looked around and seen what people are experiencing, what anxiety there is, as well as the turmoil in the markets that’s underlying it.
“I’d like to think that the Prime Minister would just do the decent thing and turn up and do that.”
Plots to remove Liz Truss as PM ‘destabilising economy and reputation,’ Nadine Dorries says
Nadine Dorries, a former culture secretary, hit out at her party colleagues amid reports of plots to oust Liz Truss.
“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.”
Labour demands Liz Truss takes questions from MPs after Kwarteng sacking
Labour is calling on Liz Truss to come before Parliament on Monday to face MPs, as pressure continues to build on the prime minister.
The challenge to Ms Truss comes after she dramatically ditched a major chunk of the mini-budget and sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, replacing him with Jeremy Hunt, in a bid to restore credibility.
The new chancellor spent the weekend signalling that the country could be facing a package of tax rises and spending cuts, in a move that would make a complete reversal of the new prime minister’s promised economic vision.
Ms Truss and the new chancellor met in Chequers on Sunday, as the pair begin work on what will effectively be a new budget on 31 October.
Sir Keir Starmer accused Ms Truss of being “in office but not in power”.
Tory members react to Kwasi Kwarteng sacking
“Kwasi is a very nice man but he was out of his depth as Chancellor,” says one member of Staines Conservative Club of their local MP’s brief tenure in 11 Downing Street.
This view is repeated by others, both at the club and among non-Tory voters in Kwasi Kwarteng’s Surrey constituency of Spelthorne, two days after he was sacked as Chancellor by his close friend and ideological ally Liz Truss.
Peter Andrews, 61, adds that despite viewing Mr Kwarteng as being “out of his depth”, he still thinks he was “thrown under the bus by Liz Truss”.
“They wanted to put in true Tory things like low tax and small government but they should have got it costed, that’s the trouble,” Mr Andrews says.
The self-employed courier says that his ideal choice of next leader in the event of Liz Truss departing Number 10 would be Tory veteran Sir John Redwood.
However, his pool-playing partner at the club, Brian Burt, a 63-year-old railway worker, says he thinks it is Mr Kwarteng’s replacement, Jeremy Hunt, who is most likely to fill any void at the top of government because “he’s got the experience and he’s believable”.
Aashish Joshi, a 49-year-old IT manager and fellow member of Staines Conservative Club, shared the opinion that their MP had been “thrown under the bus” by Ms Truss for the spectacular failure of the Government’s mini-budget.
“Kwasi didn’t make any decisions because the Prime Minister is ultimately responsible for what goes on – so she had to sign off on everything that was being done.”
Senior Conservative Alicia Kearns said the question of whether Liz Truss should continue as prime minister is “incredibly difficult”.
Asked on Times Radio if Ms Truss could or should survive in Number 10, Ms Kearns, the new chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, sighed and said: “Ultimately it is a very difficult one because I think you know we’ve had the questions around our moral competency. We’ve now got questions around our fiscal competency.
“I don’t want further questions around even our ability to continue to govern as a party and our ability to stay united. It’s an incredibly difficult one, and ultimately I need to listen to colleagues and speak to colleagues over coming days.
“But do we need a fundamental reset? Without question.”
ICYMI: Joe Biden says Liz Truss’s tax cut plans were ‘a mistake’
Joe Biden has described Liz Truss’s newly abandoned tax cuts as a “mistake,” in a rare criticism of the British prime minister.
The US president said it was “predictable” that his UK counterpart had been forced to abandon her economic plans after they caused turmoil in global financial markets.
In a bid to cling on to power, Ms Truss on Friday sacked her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of his mini-Budget, which outlined aggressive tax cuts without identifying any cost savings.
“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake,” Mr Biden said of the tax cuts. “The idea of cutting taxes on the super wealthy … I disagreed with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain to make that judgment, not me.”
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Joe Biden says Liz Truss’s tax cut plans were ‘a mistake’
US president’s comments, a rare criticism of British domestic policy, come as PM fights to save her career