London
CNN
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Les Truss She is struggling to save her job as Britain’s prime minister after several of her MPs called on her to resign, angry at a timid parliamentary vote and Resignation of the Minister of the Interior late on Wednesday.
Conservative MP Simon Hoare said Thursday the Truss government had “12 hours” to “change the ship’s course” after chaos turned into chaos in a vote on the controversial shale gas fracking ban.
Lawmakers reported that Truss aides roughed up members of Parliament in the voting lobby to force them to vote against the ban. The government initially presented the vote as a motion of confidence in the Truss government, but confusion remains over whether it is. A Downing Street spokesman said Thursday that conservative lawmakers who did not take part in Wednesday night’s vote will face disciplinary action, the Palestinian News Agency said.
The chaos came hours after Truss’s home secretary, Suila Braverman, largely resigned after just seven weeks of acting with a violent attack on the prime minister’s leadership.
The actions of government depend on people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Braverman wrote in his critique of Truss’s many shifts regarding taxation and public spending.
“I have concerns about the direction of this government,” Braverman said. “Not only have we violated the major pledges we made to our neighbours, but I have serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honoring the commitments of the manifesto.”
Truss, who fired her finance minister last week after a disastrous and since-abandoned fiscal plan caused turmoil in markets, must now focus on getting to the weekend without her lawmakers moving to oust her.
Backbencher Crispin Blunt told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday that Truss’ position was “completely untenable”, adding that she had shown a “lack of self-knowledge” in the process.
“And if you don’t understand that, I’d be surprised,” Blunt said. “But one of the qualities she showed was the lack of self-knowledge of this whole process, because it should have been clear that she had no ability to lead our party and I don’t think she should have put herself to lead in the first place.”
At least two Conservative lawmakers have confirmed that they have submitted letters of no-confidence, although many others are believed to have done so in private. “I had high hopes for Liz Truss, but after what happened last night her position has become untenable and I have sent a message to Sir Graham Brady,” Cheryl Murray wrote on Twitter on Thursday after her colleague William Wragg publicly announced her letter.
Truss would face a vote of confidence if the influential 1922 Committee of Representatives changed its rules to enable it soon after the leadership vote, but previous prime ministers were pressured to resign before facing humiliation as a result of a successful ballot to oust them.
Earlier this year, Truss’ predecessor Boris Johnson narrowly escaped a vote of confidence in his leadership. But he resigned weeks later when dozens of ministers and cabinet members resigned due to mistrust in his government.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labor Party with a big lead in opinion polls, reiterated his calls for a snap general election on Thursday. He wrote on Twitter: “Britain can’t stand the Tory chaos.” My Labor government will provide the necessary stability and leadership. for our economy. for growth. for working people. General elections now.
A vote does not need to be held until January 2025 at the latest, but the prospect of Britain seeing its third prime minister since the last vote in 2019 will increase pressure on Truss’ successor to ask the public for a new mandate.