Liz Truss finds her premiership hanging by a thread
(Picture: PA Wire)Liz Truss’s future as Prime Minister was plunged into extreme doubt after the Chief Whip and her deputy reportedly quit after chaos and bullying allegations in a showdown vote on fracking on Wednesday night.
The mayhem erupted in Parliament just hours after Suella Braverman was axed as Home Secretary.
Labour MPs claimed they saw Tory MPs being manhandled as the Government sought to limit the size of a revolt in the vote over a ban on fracking.
Allegations were not being made against Chief Whip Wendy Morton or her deputy - but the scenes were almost unprecedented in the Commons.
Morton had told colleagues she had quit but the Prime Minister was reportedly urging her to change her mind with Downing street saying officially she and her deputy were still in post.
The turmoil sparked speculation that far more Tory MPs will write letters of no confidence in Ms Truss to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench committee of Tory MPs.
The whips had warned Tory MPs that the vote was a “confidence motion in the Government” and a hard three-line whip was imposed.
But once it became clear dozens of MPs were going to rebel, a Government minister back-tracked on the stance.
In a bizarre twist it first appeared Liz Truss did not vote on the motion which had been billed originally as a vote of confidence in her leadership - but she was eventually recorded as voting ‘no’.
The government won the fracking vote by a majority of 96 defeating a motion brought by Labour to ban the controversial method of harnessing energy from underground. However, the fallout from the way in which MPs were treated by No10 and the whips.
The government won by 326 to 230 against the banning of fracking with 40 Tories not voting with the government - including Kwasi Kwarteng Nadine Dorries and Theresa May - and risking losing the whip.
A Labour former minister has asked the Commons Deputy Speaker to investigate into “the scenes outside the entrance to the No lobby” after he saw “members being physically manhandled into another lobby and being bullied”.
Raising a point of order, Chris Bryant said: “I would urge you to launch an investigation into the scenes outside the entrance to the no lobby earlier.
“As you know, members are expected to be able to vote without fear or favour and the behaviour code which is agreed by the whole of the House says there shall never be bullying or harassment.
“I saw members being physically manhandled into another lobby and being bullied.
“If we want to stand up against bullying in this House of our staff, we have to stop bullying in this chamber as well.”
The scenes in the Commons followed a frenetic day in which Liz Truss faced Prime Minister’s Questions after her mini-budget had been binned by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
She was goaded by Labour leader Keir Starmer who listed her policy U-turns. She guaranteed the triple lock on pensions at the session - an assurance which Hunt had failed to give earlier on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister told MPs: “I have been very clear that I am sorry and that I have made mistakes.”
But she added: “The right thing to do in those circumstances is to make changes, which I have made, and to get on with the job and deliver for the British people.”
Following the bruising emcounter Home Secretary Suella Braverman was sacked after using her private email to send a message relating to the government’s position on immigration.
In her letter to the prime minister on departing office she attacked Truss indicating that she had failed to face up to the economic turmoil she had set in motion with her tax cutting mini budget purported to be a driver of growth in the economy.
In her resignation letter she admitted she had been the author of her own downfall through her using own email to send the message but added: “The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes.
“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time.”
Ms Braverman was only appointed to replace Priti Patel in the role on September 6 and her exit after just 43 full days makes her the shortest-serving home secretary in modern political history.
Following her departure Grant Shapps, an outspoken critic of the prime minister was made Home Secretary.
Meanwhile a sixth Conservative MP publicly called for her resignation when William Wragg said he was “personally ashamed” of telling his constituents to back the Tories.
The prime minister is attempting to build bridges with Tory MPs, including through “fairly regular” events for backbenchers, No 10 said.
But there is speculation that the chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady had already received more than 54 letters calling for a confidence vote in the PM, the threshold for triggering one if Ms Truss was not in the 12 months’ grace period for new leaders.
“I wouldn’t get into private conversations,” the Prime Minister’s press secretary said.
