After Boris Johnson, is Liz Truss staring at exit as UK PM?
Britain’s interior minister Suella Braverman said on Wednesday she had quit the embattled government of PM Liz Truss after using her personal email to send an official document to a colleague.
“I have made a mistake, I accept responsibility; I resign,” she said in letter to Prime Minister Liz Truss posted on Twitter, calling it a “technical infringement” of government rules.
But, tellingly, Braverman also said she had “serious concerns” about the government’s commitment to honouring commitments it made to voters at the last election.
“I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration,” she said.
The Indian-origin minister, appointed less than two months ago, is a popular figure on the ruling Conservative Party’s right wing and a champion of more restrictive immigration policies.
Many in Westminster didn’t think Truss would make it to Prime Minister’s Questions earlier on Wednesday — including plenty of lawmakers in her own ruling Conservative Party.
Since last week’s session, she fired her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng and ditched most of her economic programme after the financial markets she has long championed turned against her. Yet mainly because angry Tories can’t agree on who they want to replace her, Truss was allowed to bound into a packed House of Commons chamber, smile fixed in place. To muted cheers from her side and loud jeers on the opposition benches, she took a seat next to new finance minister Jeremy Hunt.
“I’m a fighter and not a quitter,” an outwardly upbeat Truss told Parliament — twice.
“I am somebody who’s prepared to front up, I’m prepared to take the tough decisions,” Truss continued, describing the humiliating U-Turns that have unraveled policy positions she has spent her career fighting for.
There was little sign she was convincing the rows of Conservative MPs, most of whom sat quietly behind her looking at their hands as opposition politicians laughed.
Privately, many of Truss’s MPs say it’s just a matter of time before she is forced to resign. Her plan for government is in tatters, and much of her party is unclear now what she stands for.
At least five Conservative Party MPs have already publicly called for her to be replaced amid catastrophic popularity ratings. Polls show Truss’s personal and party ratings have plummeted, with YouGov saying Tuesday that – within six weeks of taking power – she had become the most unpopular leader it has ever tracked.
A separate survey of party members found less than two months after electing her Tory leader and PM, a majority now think she should go.
More than three-quarters of people disapprove of the government – the highest in eleven years, YouGov said. Foreign minister James Cleverly defended Truss on Sky News on Wednesday, however, saying he was “far, far from convinced” that “defenestrating another prime minister will either convince the British people that we’re thinking about them or convince the markets to stay calm”.
On the heels of BoJo
Truss was only formally appointed in early September after a lengthy voting process among Conservative Party members, where she narrowly beat out Rishi Sunak.
Sunak, who had been the finance minister under Boris Johnson, was the first Cabinet member to resign after months of scandal enveloped No 10 Downing Street, setting off a political crisis that ousted the former prime minister.
Britons are still reeling from the chaos that surrounded Johnson’s government for weeks amid a cost-of-living crisis.
They were less than impressed after the selection of a new premier occurred within the Tory party, and without public consultation. The next general election is not expected until 2024.