Things must be serious when the British Prime Minister rounds up her cabinet at Downing Street on a Monday night. For Liz Truss, it could be her last chance to convince her ministers that she still has everything under control. Amid the deepening government crisis, the sacking of their finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, was a necessary political sacrifice to save their own necks.
But with the appointment of Jeremy Hunt — a respected and experienced Chancellor of the Exchequer — Truss has bought, at best, breathing space. He, in turn, wasted no time on Monday in making the Prime Minister look anything but good. In a short-term TV address, Hunt reversed virtually all of the tax breaks Truss had announced. Even the term of the state energy price cap – their political heart project – was shortened from two years to six months. “The most important goal for our country now is stability,” said Hunt. In her party speech almost two weeks ago, Truss presented herself as an “advocate of change”.
Her focus remains on “delivering,” a government spokesman said on Monday when asked whether the prime minister would take action. But the crucial question is: How many U-turns can Truss still afford on her 39th day in office?
So while the PM will try to mollify and explain on Monday night, a group of senior Tory MPs are getting together for dinner – the menu of the day says ‘truss on a skewer’. Many of the lawmakers are supporters of Rishi Sunak, Truss’s campaign competitor. It is most likely that “it will fall before Christmas,” ex-Finance Minister George Osborne predicted on Channel 4. Tory MP Crispin Blunt was even clearer: “No, I think the game is over,” he said when asked whether Truss could survive politically. It is now a question of finding a successor.
With the promise of radical tax breaks and her insistence on “growth, growth, growth” Truss had prevailed in her own party in the summer election campaign. According to their strategy, dubbed “Trussonomics,” lower taxes should lead directly to strong economic growth. Instead, the opposite happened: spooked investors retreated, the pound plummeted and the Bank of England had to intervene several times. The Prime Minister was forced to announce a partial departure from her tax policy. Coupled with Monday’s appointment of their new Treasury Secretary, the 180 degree turnaround is perfect. Basically, Hunt’s testimony was “a very polite coup,” says Guardian political journalist Peter Walker.
Others in Truss’s cabinet are also privately asking what the point of her government is now that it has had to scrap almost everything it started with. The world has long speculated that the chairman of the “1922 Committee”, Sir Graham Brady, has already received 100 letters in an attempt to officially overthrow Truss. Even the “Sunday Times” is calling on the Conservatives to overthrow the Prime Minister: “Leading Tories must now act in the national interest and remove her from Downing Street as quickly as possible,” says an opinion piece there.
The pressure on Truss is also growing from the business side. Leading economists have long since stopped privately discussing a change at the top. Alison Carnwath, a senior adviser at investment bank Evercore, told the Financial Times that Truss should go down in record books as “the shortest-serving prime minister of all time.” Top British financier Guy Hands publicly demanded that Truss “should go as soon as possible”.
The Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who is currently campaigning for an independent Scotland, also speaks of a “self-inflicted crisis by Liz Truss”. The sooner the prime minister vacates the space, the better.
And criticism even comes from the United States. In unusually clear fashion, US President Joe Biden announced over the weekend that he did not agree with Truss’ approach to introducing tax breaks for the super-rich in times like these. “I wasn’t the only one who thought this was a mistake,” Biden said. However, it is not up to him, but to Great Britain to judge.
By Wednesday at the latest, the prime minister has to answer questions from MPs in parliament. Should Truss really be asked the vote of confidence, Britain should soon have its fifth prime minister in six years. Ex-Treasury Secretary Sunak, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Penny Mordaunt and Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace are already being discussed as possible successors. Even the scandal-ridden ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson is believed by some to return. Since Truss himself has no mandate, an early election would be almost inevitable.
However, this could end bitterly for the Tories: in some polls, the opposition Labor Party leads by more than 30 percentage points. A current “Opinium” analysis of the constituencies even suggests that the Conservatives would lose up to 219 seats in the House of Representatives in the event of new elections. “The PM claims she is in charge, but the evidence this weekend suggests she is in office but not in power,” scoffed Labor leader Keir Starmer.
“Will Liz Truss last longer than this salad?” the tabloid “Daily Star” asked spitefully on Friday – and started a YouTube live stream showing a photo of the head of government next to a head of lettuce with a blonde wig and glued-on eyes.
The photo has since been turned over. Underneath it reads: “BREAKING: Liz Truss has gone into hiding”.
Quellen: “The Guardian”, “BBC”, “The Telegraph”, “The NY Times”, mit DPA-Material
