Liz Truss insists she’ll last until Halloween & admits ‘difficult day’ amid calls for resignation & ‘manhandling’ probe
LIZ Truss’ premiership is on the brink this morning following a dramatic night of chaos and tears - but the PM insists she'll stay on past Halloween.
More Tory MPs - including sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman - lashed out at their leader as her authority drained away.
Fifteen Conservative backbenchers have now publicly called for the PM to go, with dozens more saying they want her out in private.
And this morning head honcho of the 1922 backbench committee Sir Graham Brady went to visit the PM in Downing Street.
It falls to Sir Graham to inform the PM if and when she's lost the confidence of most of her MPs.
The Sun understands Ms Truss requested the meeting this morning to be updated on the party mood.
A spokesperson for the PM admitted "yesterday was a difficult day" but added there are "no plans for any change" and "the Prime Minister will continue beyond the 31st".
This morning Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan on five occasions could not say for certain whether Ms Truss will lead the Tories into the next general election.
When asked by Times Radio if she would, the Cabinet Minister replied: "I think at the moment that is still the case".
And Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle this morning confirmed parliamentary authorities will investigate claims Tory MPs were manhandled into voting lobbies last night by riled-up ministers.
It comes as...
- At least 12 Tory MPs have publicly called for Ms Truss to quit, with dozens more saying so privately
- Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay has launched an investigation into claims Tory MPs were last night manhandled into voting lobbies
- Suella Braverman was last night sacked as Home Secretary and replaced by arch Truss critic Grant Shapps
Conservatives rebels are increasingly breaking ranks to openly criticise their leader.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt told the BBC's Today Programme: "The situation is untenable. We need to effect change today to stop this shambles."
He called on Jeremy Hunt to move into No10 and be replaced by Rishi Sunak as Chancellor.
And another MP, Simon Hoare, warned Ms Truss she has just 12 hours to "turn the ship around".
He told the BBC: "The unsettling thing is that there isn’t a route plan - it is hand to hand fighting on a day to day basis."
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Privately many more Tories are gunning for Ms Truss.
One Cabinet Minister told The Times her position was now "terminal".
Ms Truss saw her government collapse around her on Wednesday as she sacked her Home Secretary and her Chief Whip Wendy Morton tried to quit only to hours later decide to stay put.
Ousted Suella Braverman branded Ms Truss “not serious” and accused her of living in political la la land.
She was replaced by former Transport Secretary Mr Shapps, who has spent the past few weeks plotting against the government and publicly bashing the policy ideas coming out of No10.
Responding to Ms Braverman's sacking, influential Tory MP Sir John Redwood this morning said: "The PM was wrong to accept the Home Secretary’s resignation.
"She had the legal expertise and the determination to control our borders to enforce a fair immigration policy."
During farcical scenes in the Commons in the early evening, the Government U-turned on a threat to strip the whip from Conservative MPs if they backed a fracking ban.
Allegations of bullying were then levelled at senior Cabinet figures including the Deputy PM Therese Coffey and the whips over “physically manhandling” wavering MPs through the division lobbies.
Deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker had issued a “100 per cent hard” three-line whip, meaning any Tory MP who rebelled could be thrown out of the parliamentary party.
But Climate minister Graham Stuart stoked confusion by telling the Commons minutes before the vote that “quite clearly this is not a confidence vote”.
Mr Whittaker reportedly ran through Commons crying: “I am f*cking furious and I don’t give a f*ck anymore.”
Meanwhile, MPs overheard Ms Morton claiming she’s done with the job too.
All the Tory MPs who have publicly called for Truss to go
- Crispin Blunt: "He has to go now as she cannot win nor sustain the confidence of her colleagues"
- Andrew Bridgen: “We cannot carry on like this.”
- Jamie Wallis: "Enough is enough. I have written to [her] to ask her to stand down as she no longer holds the confidence of this country."
- Angela Richardson: "no longer tenable" for her to stay
- Charles Walker: "If she doesn't go right now, it won't be her decision."
- Steve Double: she will have to "consider her position"
- Will Wragg: “I am personally ashamed because I cannot go and face my constituents, look them in the eye and say that they should support our great party"
- Gary Streeter: “It seems we must change leader.”
- Johnny Mercer: retweeted Charles Walker calling for the PM to go saying "f**k me, he's nailed it. Every word."
- Maria Caufield: "We are all Charles Walker."
- Cheryll Murray: "I have submitted a letter to Sir Graham Brady"
- Miriam Cates: "Yes, I do think it's time for the Prime Minister to go"
- Henry Smith: Tories "can't delay" removing Truss... "we need new leadership"
- Matthew Offord: “She does need to sit down and discuss it with her Cabinet and with others to manage some kind of dignified exit.”
- Jill Mortimer: "The deteriorating situation throughout (yesterday) left me with no choice but to submit a letter."
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But after hours of confusion No10 finally clarified both whips remained in post.
And astonishingly at 1.33am Downing Street messaged journalists to say the fracking vote was all just one big misunderstanding.
A No10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister has full confidence in the chief and deputy chief whip. Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion. The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.
“However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three line whip. The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government.”
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Last night Tory MPs were seen in tears on the Commons terrace.
They were comforted by colleagues with glasses of wine in hand.