Tory MPs warn Truss ‘could be gone by Christmas’

Liz Truss urged to 'get on side of homeowners' by Montgomerie

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Speaking to The Independent on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, senior backbenchers said that MPs are “livid” with the Prime Minister. They are particularly unhappy with suggestions that benefit increases will be cancelled in favour of tax cuts for the wealthy.

One MP described the austerity for the poorest in society and giveaways for the wealthiest as “electoral suicide”.

They also confirmed that Tory MPs were talking to Labour about blocking it in Parliament.

Although plots haven’t yet formed, there is an expectation they will start soon unless Ms Truss shows signs of backing down by the time the House of Commons returns from recess on October 11.

Speaking to The Independent, former Chancellor and Thatcher-era veteran Kenneth Clarke said that Ms Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng needed to “learn important lessons quickly”.

The former Home Secretary slammed the mini-budget as “politically inept” after the pledge to implement £45 billion tax cuts sent the market into freefall.

Labour has also established a strong lead in opinion polls up to 33 percent in one which if replicated in a general election would translate into a landslide victory.

Phillip Oppenheim a veteran of the Sir John Major’s treasury team said that Ms Truss could be “quite possibly the last ever Tory prime minister”.

He said:“Nothing in last week’s mini-Budget indicates that our new leaders have the slightest grasp of our long-term structural problems or the solutions, beyond a half-digested, two-dimensional version of Thatcherism,”

It comes as the chair of the influential Commons Treasury Committee, Mel Stride, warned Mr Kwarteng that delaying the release of the medium term fiscal plan and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) assessment of its impact could be disastrous.

It could also inflict misery on millions be encouraging the Bank of England to hike interest rates even further.

Mr Stride also asked Mr Kwarteng to bring forward the publication of the fiscal plans from November 23 to allow the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to assess City reaction before its 3 November rate-setting meeting.

He said:“If the OBR forecast appears before the MPC meeting, and if it lands well with the markets, then there will be less uncertainty, less pressure on sterling and bond yields and that might then lead to the MPC deciding it can go with a lower, less painful interest rate hike than would otherwise have been the case.”

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Tory MP Sir Roger Gale also backed early publication arguing that Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng had to move quickly because people are “frightened”.

The Thatcher era veteran added that the PM could be under “very considerable pressure” by the end of the year unless she could offer the public reassurance on the economy.

He said: “I know what it’s like to have men and women in tears because they’re having their homes repossessed,”

One former minister told The Independent that Ms Truss’s position was “precarious” and there was no justification for the economic measures introduced.

They said: “Her position is precarious.

“There was no justification for the measures they’ve announced, which went way beyond what she promised in the summer.

“There are no organised conspiracies I’ve heard of but mainstream opinion right across the party is angry, and unless something changes soon people will be having discussions when we get back to the Commons next week.”

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