Calls for newly-appointed British Prime Minister (PM) Liz Truss to resign are growing louder, with 100 Conservative Party Members of Parliament (MPs) in favour of launching a no-confidence vote against her.
According to a report by The Independent, the MPs intend to present their call for a trust vote to Graham Brady, the leader of the Tories’ backbench, called the 1922 Committee. The legislators will ask the Committee to conduct the vote and convey to Truss that “her time is up.”
Several MPs are also calling for a change in the party rules to allow a no-confidence vote to be held immediately instead of allowing her to hold the position for the one-year grace period, which could effectively give her the shortest-ever stint at 10 Downing Street.
In fact, the Committee itself sought to change the rules in 2019 during erstwhile PM Theresa May’s ouster.
The Conservative Government is now the biggest threat to the security and the finances of families across the country.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 16, 2022
Liz Truss must come to Parliament on Monday to explain what she plans to do to turn the situation around.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/gmKEEUygSO
Three MPs—Crispin Blunt, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and Jamie Wallis—have already publicly called for her resignation. Reports suggest that supporters of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace within the Labour Party have led the campaign for her ouster.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party have called for fresh elections. Concerningly for the Tories, opinion polls warn of a landslide Labour victory in the event of an election, with prominent Conservative Party leaders like former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former PM Boris Johnson predicted to lose their seats. Polls indicate that the Labour Party would secure 411 seats compared to the Conservatives’ 137.
However, Truss has refused to announce general elections any earlier than the scheduled date in 2025. Given the Conservative Party’s large majority in the Parliament, opposition parties will find it challenging to push for a fresh election without the Tories’ support.
As Liz Truss sacks Kwasi Kwarteng for implementing her own economic policies, millions of people are still waiting for a plan to tackle the cost-of-living emergency.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) October 14, 2022
It doesn't matter how many Chancellors they get through, this Tory government is rotten to its very core.
The calls for her resignation come shortly after she dismissed former Chancellor of Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng just days after he was appointed. Both Kwarteng and Truss faced widespread criticism from the opposition and party members over their “mini-budget” plan to introduce tax cuts.
After Kwarteng’s dismissal, Truss vowed to increase the corporate tax to 25% instead of keeping it at 19% and revised her plan to substantially increase government spending. She admitted that her term has been “difficult.” However, she vowed to complete her “mission” of achieving economic growth.
She also replaced Kwarteng with Jeremy Hunt, who initially opposed calls for Truss’s resignation, arguing that voters would be disgruntled by the constant political instability caused by frequent leadership changes. Hunt also praised Truss for changing her approach in the face of criticism, saying she went beyond “policy and personnel.”
The best thing Liz Truss could do for economic stability now is resign. Her decisions have crashed the economy and heaped misery on people already struggling with a cost of living crisis.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 14, 2022
The onlydecent thing for Tory MPs to do now is call time on her govt and allow an election https://t.co/VYAISqLzPl
Soon after his appointment, however, Hunt suggested that Truss should be replaced with a team of Tory leaders that includes Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, and himself. In response to a query about how Truss can be ousted, he said, “Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism [remains unclear] ... but it will happen.”
Hunt said Kwarteng and Truss’ mini-budget was a “mistake,” noting that it went “too far, too fast” and rewarded the country’s wealthiest citizens.
In this regard, he said he would unveil a new fiscal plan at the end of the month, declaring, “No chancellor can control the markets. But what I can do is show that we can pay for our tax and spending plans and that is going to need some very difficult decisions on both spending and tax.”
The mini-budget also generated criticism from outside the UK, with United States President Joe Biden saying the decision to cut taxes for the “super wealthy” was a “mistake,” noting that it was “predictable” that Truss would reverse the policy. The International Monetary Fund, too, criticised the later-withdrawn policy, saying it would widen income inequality by “reward[ing] the already wealthy.”