The Tories lost two seats with around 20,000 majorities in by-elections on Thursday in Selby and Ainsty, to Labour, and Somerton and Frome, to the Lib Dems, while narrowly holding on to Boris Johnson’s old Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat amid a challenge from Labour.
Tory Party chairman Greg Hands claimed the 495-vote victory in Uxbridge was the “standout result” while Mr Sunak insisted the next general election was not a “done deal” despite the loss of two safe seats.
The former prime minister also warned Mr Johnson’s critics they should “never, ever, ever” write him off amid questions over whether he could seek a return to the political frontline.
The committee recommended Mr Johnson “should not be entitled to a former Member’s pass” after it concluded he had deliberately misled MPs over partygate.
Ben Wallace refutes General Sergei Shoigu‘s allegations that the UK is helping Kyiv gather nuclear material to use on the battlefield
One weary-sounding Conservative MP said they felt they had been in the grip of a cult over the last six weeks – and had escaped just in time. Others, however, still felt trapped, they said. “That is literally what it’s been like … It’s such a sense of relief. I just thank God it’s over.”
The victorious Daily Star 60p lettuce, which outlasted soon-to-be-ex Prime Minister Liz Truss, has made it to the House of Commons – with its face beamed onto the famous walls of at the Palace of Westminster this evening.
The long-lasting 60p salad vegetable won the race to see if Liz Truss could outlast it earlier today, as Truss finally gave up on her attempt to cling to power after days of chaos at Westminster.
The lettuce, while not in prime condition, managed to endure longer than Liz Truss – who will be the UK‘s shortest-serving prime minister ever.
It all paved the way for the Jeremy Hunt coup. That nerdy technocrat is hardly Pinochet. He’s an improbable usurper of power. Yet the political and strategic fragility of Trussism meant he could very easily sweep in and take control. He now runs the country. He has stuffed the Treasury with Osbornites and Hammondites and others who, like him, love ‘competence’ above all else. They want to steer the nation from the choppy waters of Brexit and Boris back to the safe shore of technocracy. Even though we didn’t vote for that, and don’t want it. That sappy Remainers could seize the reins of power was further proof of the infirmity of Trussism. One house of cards replaced with another.
Boris Johnson is currently the most popular choice among Tory MPs to become prime minister as the race to replace Liz Truss roared into life today following her humiliating resignation after just 44 days in power.
With a quarter of MPs declaring support for their preferred candidates, Mr Johnson currently counts 38 backers, compared to Rishi Sunak‘s 27 and Penny Mourdant‘s 12, according to the latest tally by Guido Fawkes.
– Liz Truss dramatically resigned as Prime Minister this afternoon after lasting just 44 days in the top job
– Her close friends said they knew she was going to quit after they began receiving texts from her at 4am
– Sir Graham Brady told her later that day she had lost the party‘s support and would lose a confidence vote
(Streamed live 9 hours ago)
Liz Truss was facing a revolt by Tory MPs opposed to fracking on Wednesday despite whips saying a crunch Commons vote was a “confidence motion in the Government”.
At least three MPs signalled that they would not back the Government in the showdown vote, including the Prime Minister’s net-zero tsar Chris Skidmore, Conservative MP for Kingswood.
Earlier today, I sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement, and with the aim of garnering support for Government policy on migration. This constitutes a technical infringement of the rules. As you know, the document was a draft Written Ministerial Statement about migration, due for publication imminently. Much of it had already been briefed to MPs. Nevertheless, it is right for me to go.
As soon as I realised my mistake, I rapidly reported this on official channels, and informed the Cabinet Secretary. As Home Secretary I hold myself to the highest standards and my resignation is the right thing to do. The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Pretending we haven‘t made mistake, carrying on as if everyone can‘t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.
The immediate cause of the resignation was the breach of security rules after Ms Braverman admitted inadvertently sending a sensitive document from her personal email.
But a letter to the PM, released by Ms Braverman on her social media feeds, amounted to an assault on Ms Truss’s five-week record in office.
Borrowing one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite put-downs, a Labour source described the prime minister as “frit” – meaning “frightened”.
The urgent question was tabled in a bid to force Ms Truss to answer MPs’ questions after she resisted Labour demands for a statement to the Commons today to explain the reversal of the bulk of her mini-Budget in a series of massive U-turns.
New Tory prime ministers currently enjoy a year of immunity from confidence votes under the party rulebook.
But George Osborne, the former chancellor, predicts the beleaguered PM will likely be gone by Christmas, adding that „there will be a way“ for the party to remove her from Downing Street.
Here are the Conservative MPs calling for Ms Truss to quit.
(…)
(12.10.2022)
Under fierce fire from journalists, Ms Truss refused to apologise for ‚trashing‘ the Tories‘ reputation – before abruptly walking out after eight minutes and just four question.
Downing Street will now be waiting anxiously to see if the PM has done enough to cling on, but the early response was not promising, with one former Cabinet minister telling MailOnline the PM had been ‚robotic‘ and made the situation far worse.
(today, 08.36 am)
In der Konservativen Partei nimmt einem Bericht der Londoner „Times“ zufolge der Widerstand gegen die britische Premierministerin und Parteivorsitzende Liz Truss zu. Führende Torys würden eine Ablösung der Regierungschefin nach nur gut einem Monat im Amt diskutieren, schrieb die Zeitung. Es gebe Überlegungen, einen gemeinsamen Kandidaten bzw. eine gemeinsame Kandidatin für die Parteispitze aufzustellen. Das Bauernopfer könnte allerdings Finanzminister Kwasi Kwarteng sein.
9:28AM
Tory MP: ‚I have lost confidence in the Chancellor and the PM‘
The mood among some Tory MPs is particularly grim this morning.
One tells me they have now lost confidence in Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng and that many MPs now believe the PM needs to be replaced.
They said: “I have lost confidence in the Chancellor and the Prime Minister for that matter. It is a total mess and there is no obvious solution.
“The vast majority of people [MPs] I speak to think she has to go.”
The unnamed member of the parliamentary Conservative party told Bloomberg political editor Kitty Donaldson that they had handed in their letter to the 1922 committee on Sunday night.
While Tory MPs say letters have been going in for more than a week, this may be the first report of an MP personally admitting they have sent one themself.
Current rules give Liz Truss until next September before she can be ousted – but these could be changed by MPs.
– Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng backtracked amid threat of losing Commons vote
The official added that he believes that the agreement might only come to fruition after the midterm election in the United States in November. Israel is now working, mainly behind the scenes, with senators and Congress members in an attempt to persuade them to support its positions on the matter.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday described as “successful” his government’s diplomatic offensive against a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. However, he conceded that there was a “long way” to go to ensure that Tehran does not benefit to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars should an accord be reached.
(11.09.2022)
Our position remains clear and steadfast. Iran must fully and, without delay, cooperate in good faith with the IAEA. It is up to Iran to provide technically credible answers to the IAEA’s questions on the whereabouts of all nuclear material on its territory. The JCPoA can in no way be used to release Iran from legally binding obligations that are essential to the global non-proliferation regime.
Given Iran’s failure to conclude the deal on the table we will consult, alongside international partners, on how best to address Iran’s continued nuclear escalation and lack of cooperation with the IAEA regarding its NPT safeguards agreement.
She must also commit to giving workers a pay rise, ending the creeping privatisation of our NHS and the appalling treatment of refugees fleeing war.
“I am sure that under your leadership the deep friendship between Britain and Israel will be further strengthened in all fields,” tweets Netanyahu.
The former prime minister also adds his thanks to outgoing PM Boris Johnson “for his valued contributions to the excellent relations between our two countries.”
Follow updates here as the next Prime Minister is revealed as the winner of the Tory leadership contest is announced at Westminster‘s Queen Elizabeth II Centre:
The latest polling by Opinium for the Observer shows that whereas 49% of people who voted Tory in 2019 had believed Truss “looks like a prime minister in waiting” at the beginning of August, this had dropped to just 31% by 30 August.
Similarly while 55% said she was competent at the start of August, this had dropped to 35% among 2019 Tory voters by the end of the month. And while 52% of the same voters thought she was likeable at the start of August, only 31% felt that way by the end of the month.
Conservative MPs have warned Liz Truss not to lurch the government to the right if, as expected, she triumphs over her rival Rishi Sunak and becomes prime minister next week.
Tory MPs cautioned that the new Conservative leader must not abandon the centre ground or surround herself with an inner circle of right-wing allies now that a general election is looming.
If you are a right-wing MP or ambitious wonk on the Truss campaign ‘pivot’ is such a useful word. Far better to say ‘we need to pivot from campaign mode to governing mode,’ than to blurt out that ‘now we have their votes we can forget the lies we told to win over Conservative members’. Far better for Truss herself to say, ‘I am pivoting from my previous position on tax cuts’ to ‘I admit that I was wrong’.
Pivoting calls to mind the elegance of a ballerina turning on her points. Not the cynicism of a politician breaking promises she made only a few days before.
We risk ending up with calamitous poverty, civil disobedience, a new socialist government by next year, a break-up of the UK, nationalisations, price and incomes policies, punitive wealth taxes and eventually a complete economic and financial meltdown and IMF bailout. The situation in the EU is, if anything, worse.
This is not a plea for pacifism, for looking away when Ukraine is being illegally invaded by a savage regime. Britain was – and remains – morally right to back Ukraine in a carefully calibrated way. Instead, this is a plea for an economic counter-offensive, for Liz Truss, the next PM, to tackle Putin’s economic and energy war head-on.