Conservative MPs are threatening to bring down Liz Truss and force a snap General Election if she presses ahead with trashing benefits.
One Red Wall Tory told the Sunday Mirror: “There is no way we can allow those with little money to be left with less even if it does mean the Government falls and an election follows.”
It would take fewer than 40 Tories to vote with opposition parties to destroy Ms Truss’s premiership if she insisted on making it a confidence issue.
Last week the Sunday Mirror revealed 70 no-confidence letters would be needed for backbench shop steward Sir Graham Brady to warn Ms Truss that her time is up.
MPs now estimate that threshold has been met.
Sir Graham, chair of the 1922 committee, met Ms Truss for crisis talks at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will address the committee on Wednesday to assure backbenchers his next financial statement on November 23 will not be a disaster like last month’s mini-budget.
MPs are now working out if there is any way to bypass the party’s 172,437 members to replace Ms Truss with rival Rishi Sunak. But that would mean changing the rules so that MPs choose their leader, infuriating the party membership.
Truss supporters say the PM’s future rests on what the Office of Budget Responsibility say about Mr Kwarteng’s financial plans.
