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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Labour MP says Tories were ‘bullied and manhandled’ during vote on fracking ban – as it happened

Liz Truss PMQS Steven Swinford James Cleverly Sir Keir Starmer

A summary of today's developments

  • Grant Shapps has been appointed the new home secretary after Suella Braverman resigned this afternoon. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the resignation of Braverman shows the government is “falling apart at the seams”.

  • Braverman said she resigned because she sent an official government document to an MP and this was “a technical infringement of the rules”. The document was a draft written ministerial statement about migration. Braverman said she sent the official document from her personal email. She added she has “concerns about the direction of this government”.

  • The government defeated a Labour motion that would have forced a vote on a bill to ban fracking. MPs voted 230 for yes, 326 for no.

  • Labour’s Chris Bryant said he saw MPs being “physically manhandled” and “bullied” in the voting lobbies. Bryant told Sky News: “There was a bunch of Conservative members who were completely uncertain about whether they were allowed to vote with the Labour motion because of what had been said in the chamber about whether it’s a free vote or a confidence vote. “There was a group - including several cabinet ministers - who were basically shouting at them. At least one member was physically pulled through the door into the voting lobby.”

  • Lord David Frost of Allenton has written in the Telegraph calling for Liz Truss to resign. “Truss just can’t stay in office for one very obvious reason: she campaigned against the policies she is now implementing.

  • The Conservative chief and deputy chief whip remain in post, Downing Street said. It follows confusion over whether Wendy Morton and Craig Whittaker quit amid the chaos of the fracking vote, with reports earlier suggesting they had

  • MPs passed the Labour motion criticising the mini-budget by 223 votes to 0. As is often the case with opposition day motions, the government told its MPs to abstain.

  • William Wragg, a Conservative MP, said that he has written a letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for a vote of no confidence in Liz Truss.

  • Jason Stein, a special adviser to Liz Truss, has been suspended pending an investigation, Sky News reports. Sky says he is being investigated by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics unit. There have been allegations that he was behind unauthorised negative briefings against former cabinet ministers, Sky says.

  • Sir Keir Starmer will accuse Liz Truss of “insulting” British workers while pledging a Labour government will repeal any new Conservative legislation restricting the right to strike. In his address to the annual TUC conference on Thursday, the Labour leader will say the Tories are “completely out of touch with the reality of the British economy”.

Senior Tory backbencher Sir Roger Gale predicted that Liz Truss could emerge stronger after Suella Braverman’s resignation.

The North Thanet MP told the PA news agency: “On balance, at the end of today I would say, in a peculiar way – and it is peculiar – Truss might come out of it stronger. I may be completely wrong and out of touch.”

Updated

Tom Bradby, in his introduction to the ITV news bulletin, described today’s events at Westminster as “total, absolutely abject chaos”.

Updated

The front of Thursday’s Guardian.

Updated

Thursday’s Metro.

The front page of tomorrow’s Mirror.

Thursday’s Telegraph.

Here is a roundup of some of Thursday’s front pages, starting with the Times.

Updated

Sir Keir Starmer will accuse Liz Truss of “insulting” British workers while pledging a Labour government will repeal any new Conservative legislation restricting the right to strike.

In his address to the annual TUC conference on Thursday, the Labour leader will say the Tories are “completely out of touch with the reality of the British economy”.

He will highlight a leaked audio recording of Truss when she was Treasury chief secretary under Theresa May saying workers in the UK lacked the “skill and application” of their foreign counterparts and needed “a bit more graft”.

“To get our country out of the hole that they dug, they turn to austerity and they turn to you – to your members and their rights,” he will say, according to advance extracts of his speech.

“It’s delusional. It’s insulting. If they bring forward further restrictions on workers’ rights or the right to strike, we will oppose and we will repeal.”

Updated

Lord David Frost of Allenton has written in the Telegraph calling for Liz Truss to resign.

“Truss just can’t stay in office for one very obvious reason: she campaigned against the policies she is now implementing.

“However masterfully she now implements them – and it doesn’t seem that it will be very masterfully – it just won’t do.

She said she wouldn’t U-turn, and then she did. Her fate is to be the Henry VI of modern politics – a weak figurehead, unable to control the forces around her, occasionally humiliated, and disposed of when she has become inconvenient. Better to go now.”

There appears to have been some technical hiccups during the fracking vote.

James Duddridge MP said his card did not scan.

And Downing Street told Sky News that Liz Truss did vote after all.

The prime minister was among a list of 40 Tory MPs listed as having abstained.

A spokesperson for Theresa May told Sky News the former prime minister was “paired” for the fracking vote earlier this evening.

She was listed as among those who abstained.

Pairing is when one MP makes an agreement with another MP who is voting the opposite way and they both agree not to vote.

Here is the footage of Conservative backbencher Charles Walker’s BBC interview over allegations of “bullying” during the vote on a possible fracking ban.

Conservative chief and deputy chief whip remain in post

The Conservative chief and deputy chief whip remain in post, Downing Street said.

It follows confusion over whether Wendy Morton and Craig Whittaker quit amid the chaos of the fracking vote, with reports earlier suggesting they had.

TalkTV’s Kate McCann says a Tory whip was “in tears” this evening, with emotions running high within the party.

The deputy prime minister, Thérèse Coffey, has said the chief whip, Wendy Morton, did a “great job” with the fracking vote.

Speaking to reporters outside the Carlton Club in central London, where Cabinet members were meeting on Wednesday evening, the close Liz Truss ally said: “It was a great victory today for the chief whip, great credit to her.

“The chief whip did a great job.”

Rumours have been swirling all evening that both Wendy Morton and Craig Whittaker, the deputy chief whip, have resigned their posts. (See 20.32)

Updated

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, has said if the embattled prime minister had “an ounce of decency, or any self-respect” she would quit before she is forced out by her MPs.

Blackford said: “Liz Truss needs to go – and she needs to go now.

“The utter chaos at the centre of the Tory government cannot continue any longer.

“It’s wrecking the economy and damaging people’s mortgages, pensions and incomes.

“If she had an ounce of decency, or any self-respect, the prime minister would resign before she is inevitably forced from office.

“And then there must be an election.”

Updated

Voting scenes 'inexcusable', 'absolute disgrace' and 'pitiful reflection' on party, says Tory MP

A Conservative MP has described the chaos in the House of Commons as “inexcusable” and an “absolute disgrace”.

Sir Charles Walker, the MP for Broxbourne, told the BBC: “To be perfectly honest, this whole affair is inexcusable.

“It is a pitiful reflection on the Conservative parliamentary party at every level and it reflects really badly obviously on the government of the day.”

Asked if there is any coming back from this, Sir Charles, visibly angry, said: “I don’t think so. And I have to say I’ve been of that view really since two weeks ago.

“This is an absolute disgrace, as a Tory MP of 17 years who’s never been a minister, who’s got on with it loyally most of the time, I think it’s a shambles and a disgrace.

“I think it is utterly appalling. I’m livid.”

Updated

From ITV’s Carl Dinnen on Liz Truss not voting.

From the Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti on the speculation around the chief whip and deputy.

Updated

Thérèse Coffey denied she “manhandled” Tory MPs to force them to support the government in the fracking vote, according to sources close to the deputy prime minister.

“Absolutely she was encouraging [Conservative] MPs into the government lobby but she didn’t manhandle anyone,” they told the PA news agency.

Updated

Tory Rother Valley MP Alex Stafford said he had a “frank and robust conversation” with government ministers following claims that he had been “physically manhandled” into the “no” lobby.

Liz Truss does not vote in fracking motion

No votes were recorded for 40 Tory MPs including Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries, David Davis, Greg Clark, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Kwasi Kwarteng, Theresa May, Wendy Morton, Alok Sharma, Priti Patel and Ben Wallace, Sky News is reporting.

This is despite a three-line whip and all Tories being told earlier they must vote in favour of the government. Some may be on holiday or on government business.

Labour MP Chris Bryant said cabinet ministers Thérèse Coffey and Jacob Rees-Mogg were among a group of senior Tories who were putting pressure on Conservative MPs to vote against the Labour motion on fracking.

Rees-Mogg has denied this, telling Sky News there was “no action that I saw” in regards to any wrongful behaviour.

Asked if what he saw was bullying, he said: “From what I saw, no.”

Updated

The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said he was “not entirely clear what the situation is with chief whip” amid reports that Wendy Morton had resigned.

Updated

Labour MP alleges Tories were 'bullied' in voting lobby

Labour MP Chris Bryant said Alexander Stafford, the Conservative MP for Rother Valley was “manhandled” and “bullied” in the voting lobby.

Bryant told Sky News: “There was a bunch of Conservative members who were completely uncertain about whether they were allowed to vote with the Labour motion because of what had been said in the chamber about whether it’s a free vote or a confidence vote.

“There was a group - including several cabinet ministers - who were basically shouting at them. At least one member was physically pulled through the door into the voting lobby.”

Updated

Labour’s Chris Bryant said he saw MPs being “physically manhandled” and “bullied” in the voting lobbies.

From the i’s Jane Merrick.

A few MPs have tweeted about scenes of chaos in the voting lobby earlier and allegations against Tory whips “dragging people in”.

Raising a point of order, Thangam Debbonaire has asked if “strong rumours” the government’s chief whip has resigned following a vote on Labour’s fracking motion could be confirmed.

The shadow Commons leader said: “There are very strong rumours that the government chief whip has apparently resigned. I wonder if it is possible to get some clarity more than rumours.”

She added: “I seek your guidance... given that this is a matter of parliamentary discipline.”

Deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing replied: “She raises a point as to whether a member of the Government has resigned. I have not been given any such information. I know no more than that and it is not a point of order for the chair.”

The shadow Commons leader, Thangam Debbonaire, raising a point of order, said there were “very strong rumours” the government chief whip, Wendy Morton, had resigned.

Updated

Fracking vote result

On the motion: Should time be made for MPs to debate a fracking ban?

MPs have voted 230 for yes, 326 for no.

The government wins the vote.

Updated

The UK risks going backwards on LGBT rights, Sir Keir Starmer has warned.

Speaking at the PinkNews Awards 2022, the Labour leader criticised “the rhetoric we’ve seen towards trans people” and the the use of minority rights for “tactical gain”.

Sir Keir also announced that his party would appoint an international LGBT rights envoy.

A Conservative MP said the government frontbench should “hang their heads in shame” as she said the leadership had “severely tested” Tory MPs’ trust.

Ruth Edwards, the Conservative MP for Rushcliffe, did not say she would vote against the government, saying: “I don’t support fracking, but I am even less keen on the idea of letting the Labour party play at being in government for the day.”

But she told MPs: “My final observation tonight is for our own frontbench. For they have enabled the opposition to force colleagues to choose between voting against our manifesto and voting to lose the whip.

“They should take a look at the faces of colleagues behind them, colleagues who have fracking sites in their constituencies, and they should hang their heads in shame.

“A Conservative government will always have my confidence, but its leadership today has severely tested my trust and the trust of many colleagues and I would advise them not to do so again.”

Updated

MPs are due to vote at 7pm on Labour’s motion, for a debate on banning fracking for shale gas, and a government amendment from Jacob Rees-Mogg which says the views of local authorities must be taken into consideration when fracking proposals are considered.

Many in the higher education sector will have breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday evening after hearing of Braverman’s departure.

She had made no secret of the fact that she wanted to limit the number of international student visas and was expected to announce a raft of immigration measures as early as Thursday.

As well as previously briefed proposals on capping the number of dependants for international students, Braverman was also thought to be considering restricting the graduate route for post-study work, either by limiting the number of places available or the length of time graduates are allowed to stay, both of which would have hit international student recruitment, especially in priority markets such as India.

Universities will now be hoping Braverman’s departure signals a change of direction in recent government policy, having warned that lower international student numbers would undermine financial resilience in the sector, negatively impacting the education home students receive and damaging the UK’s research base capability.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute said: “New rules like restricting the post-study work regime which is already tougher than in some key competitors, would be absolutely crazy. It would fly directly in the face of economic growth, which is the government’s stated number one objective.”

Updated

The leader of the opposition in the House of Lords, Lady Smith of Basildon, said:

“We’ve also seen damage to the prime minister, who has lost the confidence of the public, of parliament and of course of her own party.

“How embarrassing is it when, across the world, the media picks up on the Economist editorial that says the prime minister’s likely shelf life is shorter than that of a lettuce.

“Let’s face it, the only reason she’s still there is because her MPs, as does this house, know that they can’t change yet another leader without going to the country for a general election.

“It’s a case of when rather than if she’s forced out; I have to say looking at the benches opposite, I expect there will be some relief, possibly a huge sigh of relief, from the benches opposite, who are quite honest with us, never supported her in the first place.”

Updated

Speaking outside the Home Office, the new home secretary, Grant Shapps, acknowledged it has been “a turbulent time” for the administration.

He added: “I think the most important thing is to make sure that people of this country know that they have got security.”

He was asked about specifics around immigration, but he said he will “refrain from commenting on specifics” after “10 minutes in the job”.

Shapps added that he “accepts the government has had a difficult period” but that it makes it “doubly important we are doing everything we can in the main areas” like home affairs “regardless of what is happening elsewhere in Westminster”.

Grant Shapps walks outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London.
Grant Shapps walks outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said: “This is a government in chaos.

“People should not be forced to watch the Conservative party implode day after day while real people suffer.

“There is a of cost of living catastrophe, health service crisis and now a rudderless home office.

“The only solution now is a general election so the public can get off this carousel of Conservative chaos.”

Updated

On the resignation of Suella Braverman, the SNP’s home affairs spokesperson, Stuart McDonald MP said: “Not even two months into the job and Liz Truss has already lost a chancellor and a home secretary, at this rate her cabinet will be empty by Christmas.

“While the home secretary’s departure will be welcome news to all those disgusted by her Rwanda deportation dreams, it doesn’t change the fact that this entire government is rotten to the core and that with the busted flush Liz Truss in power it matters very little who sits in the cabinet.

“Truss empowered her home secretary to use her little time in office to pursue sickening authoritarian policies that breached international law and endangered refugees and asylum seekers. Very little will change so long as she remains in power.

“With little to no justification for remaining in post herself it’s time now for Liz Truss to do the right thing and also go.

“The mess her failing government is making has damaged the UK’s economy and reputation abroad, and it’s now dragging Scotland down with it, demonstrating exactly why we need a permanent escape from the chaos of Westminster control with the full powers of independence.”

Updated

Bob Seely, Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, has apologised for the state of the party.

He told LBC: “I actually want to apologise. I really am getting fed up with this soap opera drama as much as your listeners are.

“I’m frankly as bemused as everybody else is and I’m really unhappy with the situation.”

Updated

Peers on both sides of the chamber have added their voices to those calling for the prime minister to resign.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Lord Newby, asked: “What precedent is there for a British prime minister being forced to completely reverse the core elements of her programme and remaining in office?

“What mandate does the government now have for implementing swinging public expenditure cuts precipitated by its own incompetence?

“And why doesn’t it now do the decent thing, namely resign and let the people choose who to sort out this mess?”

Former Tory cabinet minister Lord Cormack said: “Would (the Leader of the House of Lords, Lord True) accept that what is crucial at the moment is that, in the country as a whole, there should be real confidence in the real credibility and the competence of the government?

“And that means there has to be a prime minister who is entirely credible and who enjoys the full confidence of the country, as I believe the chancellor now does?”

Updated

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker insisted Suella Braverman had not shared “market sensitive” information and said he hopes Liz Truss brings her back in the new year.

The MP, who backed Braverman in the Tory leadership contest, said the information was largely public and was due to be published in a written ministerial statement on Thursday.

He told Sky News: “If she hadn’t made this mistake today she would be continuing in the government, continuing to serve as home secretary.

“There’s absolutely no question of this being an attack on the prime minister as such. This is really regrettable.

“I wish she was staying and I very much hope the prime minister will feel able to bring Suella back in the new year.”

On claims about the information she accidentally shared, he added: “There’s absolutely no question of this being market sensitive whatsoever.”

Updated

Grant Shapps appointed new home secretary

Labour says Braverman's resignation shows government is 'falling apart at seams'

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says the resignation of Suella Braverman shows the government is “falling apart at the seams”.

That is all from me for tonight. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.

Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister, has just told Sky News that the information shown by Suella Braverman to a colleague was not market sensitive, contrary to claims being made earlier. (See 5.19pm.) He says it was a written ministerial statement due to be published tomorrow.

Updated

Three Tory MPs say they will refuse to vote to back fracking, even if that means losing whip

The government’s net zero tsar has said he will not vote with the government on fracking, despite the fact the whips have made it a confidence vote.

Chris Skidmore, a leading member of the Conservative Environment Network, said he was willing to face the consequences of his actions - which could mean losing the Conservative whip. He said:

As the former energy minister who signed net zero into law, for the sake of our environment and climate, I cannot personally vote tonight to support fracking and undermine the pledges I made at the 2019 general election. I am prepared to face the consequences of my decision.

The Tory former minister Tracey Crouch echoed his statement.

And so did the Tory MP Angela Richardson.

Skidmore has locked horns with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, on fracking before, declaring it would not be in the review of net zero he is due to publish by the end of the year. He said this is because it is not a serious energy source. Rees-Mogg is understood to be unhappy with that decision.

Skidmore also rejoiced at the Conservative conference when it was clear Truss was willing to U-turn on policy, scrapping the 45p tax rate, and he declared to the Guardian at the time that this meant “fracking is dead.

It is unclear if this rebellion will grow; Richard Graham and Mark Menzies, two of the most vocal Conservative opponents to fracking have said they will vote for Jacob Rees-Mogg’s amendment, which would give members a vote on local consent.

Graham is so against fracking he has been organising his fellow MPs to make a mass representation to the business secretary on the issue.

Updated

Braverman uses resignation letter to say she has 'concerns about direction of government'

The resignation letter from Suella Braverman is fascinating, and raises a lot more questions than it answers. Here are the key points.

  • Braverman says she resigned because she sent an official government document to an MP and this was “a technical infringement of the rules”. The document was a draft written ministerial statement about migration. Ministers use ministerial statements to announce relatively minor policy decisions, and although technically they count as confidential information, ministers routinely share documents like this with MPs in advance of publication. Braverman says she did this as part of “policy engagement” with a trusted colleague. Sky’s Sam Coates says the information was deemed “market sensitive”, because immigration policy will affect the OBR’s economic forecast. But this still does not feel like a mega-sensitive leak. MPs are regularly given information like this in advance, and you would need to be an exceptional economist to work out how a migration policy announcement would affect the OBR’s forecast.

  • Braverman says she reported herself to the cabinet secretary over what she had did and is resigning because she holds herself “to the highest standards”. But it is not clear from this if she was sacked, or decided to go herself. It has been reported that what she did broke the ministerial code, and Liz Truss has said she wants to enforce higher standards than her predecessor. But the Committee on Standards in Public Life has said that ministers should not always have to resign for breaches of the ministerial code, and this seems – on what we know so far – to be a relatively minor breach.

  • Braverman says “the business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes”. She also says pretending not to have made a mistake “is not serious politics”. This passage takes us into very different territory, and suggests she had an ulterior motive. After all, it is not hard to think of an example of another cabinet minister who recently made a mistake and then took quite a while to own up to it.

  • Braverman admits she has “concerns about the direction of this government”. In particular, she says she has concerns about the government’s commitment to reducing overall migration numbers. This is a direct reference to Truss saying that she would like some types of immigration to rise, to promote growth. She also says she has “serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments”. This passage makes this look like a policy resignation, from a rightwinger (with leadership ambitions) perhaps unhappy about the fact the Tory party is in effect under the control of the more centrist Jeremy Hunt.

Updated

On Sky News Sam Coates says the information that Suella Braverman passed on was “market sensitive”, because it related to immigration policy that would affect the OBR’s economic forecast.

Braverman says she resigned because showing government document to MP was 'technical infringment of rules'

Here is Suella Braverman’s resignation letter. She says she decided to resign because she realised she had committed “a technical infringement of the rules”.

Updated

My colleague Henry Dyer says Suella Braverman was the shortest serving home secretary since the second world war.

Danny Shaw, the BBC’s former home affairs correspondent, says she is the shortest-serving home secretary for 188 years.

If Suella Braverman was sacked over a mistake, then that does beg the question as to why she was appointed to such a senior post, without having had experience running a major government department, in the first place.

Reportedly Braverman will be replaced as home secretary by Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary. Liz Truss sacked Shapps when she took office. It later emerged that, when Truss dismissed Shapps, she told him that he was “one of the most competent secretaries of state in government” and “probably the best communicator in government” – but that he had to go anyway, because he did not back her in the leadership contest.

Updated

Braverman reportedly left over 'honest mistake' involving breaking rules for handling confidential information

Sky’s Sam Coates says he has been told that Suella Braverman left office in relation to an “honest mistake” involving an email being on a private phone.

UPDATE: Coates says he has been told there were two reasons for Braverman’s departure. He says one problem was that she had shared secure infomation on a private phone. In other words, she broke the rules on handling confidential information. He says he does not know the other reasons.

Updated

Here is more on the departure of Suella Braverman from political journalists.

From ITV’s Robert Peston

From my colleague Pippa Crerar

From the Times’ Steven Swinford

From Cat Neilan from Tortoise

And here is an extract from the Braverman story.

There is speculation that Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary who strongly backed Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership race, will replace Braverman in another sudden revamp of Truss’s government …

Sources claimed the move was at the behest of the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who has taken over control of the government’s economic response following Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, but who they claimed was now “pulling the strings”.

Replacing Braverman with Shapps, less than a week after sacking Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor in place of Hunt, would be another sign of Truss trying to both appeal to a broader section of the Conservative party, and replacing perceived ideologues with more experienced ministers.

The home secretary, who was given the job when Truss entered No 10 in early September, was seen as a backbench and party member-pleasing choice for the role, given her robust views on immigration, law and order and culture war issues.

Updated

Suella Braverman departs as UK home secretary

Suella Braverman is understood to have departed as UK home secretary after Liz Truss cleared her diary and called off a planned visit amid desperate attempts to save her premiership, my colleagues Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker report.

Updated

MPs pass non-binding Labour motion calling for publication of OBR forecast 'immediately'

MPs passed the Labour motion criticising the mini-budget by 223 votes to 0. As is often the case with opposition day motions, the government told its MPs to abstain. The government takes the view that these motions are not binding, and can be ignored.

Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, raised a point of order to point out that the motion calls for the publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecast “immediately”, as well as government estimates of the windfall profits being made by energy companies over the next two years. He asked what could be done to ensure the government complied.

Nigel Evans, the deputy Speaker, said it was up to the government to respond in due course.

Updated

Savanta ComRes has some new polling out this afternoon. Like all polling at the moment, it is dire for Liz Truss and the Conservative party.

The Commons debate on the Labour motion criticising the mini-budget has just finished. MPs are now voting.

Here are extracts from speeches by three Tory MPs criticising the government’s record.

William Wragg said:

The lack of foresight by senior members of the government, I cannot easily forgive.

Wragg also said that he was “personally ashamed” by what occurred after the mini-budget and he could not tell his constituents that “they should support our great party”. There is more from his speech at 2.18pm.

Steve Double said:

We really do need to know what the prime minister’s policies are …

I think the one thing we should all be able to depend on is no matter how difficult times are, that the government won’t make those decisions even harder and sadly that is what has happened as a result of the rushed mini budget. The fallout from that has been a loss of confidence.

Growth is a hard won thing, you do not achieve growth simply by saying we’re going to get growth loudly and passionately as possible. It needs to be nurtured with the right policies that actually instil confidence in the business community.

And James Cartlidge highlighted his alarm at reports that the introduction of the cap on social care costs may be delayed. (See 11.44am.) He said last week, when MPs voted to repeal the health and social care levy, they were told funding for health and care would not be cut. He went on:

We now know that the social care cap may be delayed or even may not happen. I sincerely hope that is not the case. Had I known that last week, would I have changed the way I might have voted?

Now there was no division called, but I think [the minister] needs to reflect on the commitment that was given.

I can tell him I would have been sorely tempted to vote against had that been the case, because the whole point of the levy was to deliver a solution to social care, but also to help fund the NHS through these difficult times.

Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of England’s deputy governor for financial stability, has told MPs that the Bank was not warned in advance of what was going to be in the mini-budget.

In evidence to the Commons Treasury committee, Cunliffe was asked by Mel Stride, the committee chair, if the Bank would have told the government that the measures were likely to trigger market turmoil, if it had known about them in advance.

Cunliffe replied:

We did not have a full briefing of the package the night before.

Had they asked us what the market reaction would be, we would have interacted with them.

But it is not our responsibility to give the government advice on fiscal policy, it is the role of the Treasury.

Liz Truss has used her Twitter account to confirm the message she delivered at PMQs about the pensions triple lock being retained.

Irish foreign minister says Tory leadership crisis means early deal on NI protocol 'very unlikely'

Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, has said that he does not expect the UK and the EU to reach an agreement on changes to the Northern Ireland protocol by the end of next week – partly because of the Tory leadership crisis in London.

Speaking after talks with Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, in Belfast, Coveney said:

I think the chances of a major breakthrough between London and Brussels between now and the 28th of October is very unlikely. Not because both sides don’t want to move forward, but because there are a lot of other things happening in British politics. That, I think, is very obvious for people to see over the last week, and continuing into this week.

And there simply isn’t the bandwidth in my view to get the kind of step forward that certainly we had hoped for a few weeks ago before the 28th.

Coveney said the talks between the UK and the EU on the protocol were continuing “in a positive light”.

The UK government has said that, if power sharing is not restored at Stormont by 28 October (the end of next week), it will call a snap election. The DUP is blocking power sharing because it wants the protocol abandoned or substantially changed first.

When the UK and the EU resumed formal talks earlier this months, after months of stalemate, there were originally hopes of a deal within weeks.

Simon Coveney arriving to speak at a John & Pat Hume Foundation event in Belfast today.
Simon Coveney arriving to speak at a John & Pat Hume Foundation event in Belfast today. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

A Downing Street source said Liz Truss’s visit this afternoon was cancelled due to “government business”, but declined to elaborate further, PA Media reports,

Peter Mandelson thinks Liz Truss did not deliver his “not a quitter” line as well as he did, the FT’s George Parker reports.

And the Conservative MP Steve Double told the World at One that Liz Truss had until the end of next week to persuade Tory MPs that she deserved to stay.

Double, who this morning said her position was “increasingly untenable” (see 11.05am), told the programme: “By the end of next week, we’ve got to be convinced.”

Most Tory MPs “probably have their preference” for a successor already, he said.

A more realistic deadline might be Monday 31 October, because that is the date set for the medium-term fiscal plan – the next version of a mini-budget – and the publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecast. The government hopes this will reassure the markets, and some MPs do not want personnel change now (anything that might lead to a new chancellor being appointed) that could disrupt that.

After 31 October, the case against removing Truss may be weaker.

The Tory MP Nigel Mills told Radio 4’s the World at One that the government had to “get a grip”. Asked if the situation with Liz Truss was sustainable, he replied:

Not like this, no. We can’t keep having a fiscal statement every other working day.

The government need to sit down, work out what they’re going to say in two weeks’ time to sort out the fiscal situation and not say anything in between. Stop making it worse, I think would be my advice in that position. How low do they want the poll ratings to get?

Updated

The Conservative MP Miriam Cates told GB News that she could not be sure whether Liz Truss would lead the party into the next election. Asked if Truss would still be leader then, Cates said:

I don’t know. I mean, I think the polling is really bad. I don’t think we should always be following the polling and we shouldn’t be creating our policy off the back of polling, but I think the key thing I would like to see her and the government address is this realignment that got us elected in 2019.

My colleague Aubrey Allegretti points out that No 10 cancelled Liz Truss’s planned trip to an electronics manufacturer this afternoon only about an hour after telling journalists it was going ahead.

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street said Vladimir Putin would face “severe consequences” if he uses nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, cancelled an appearance before the Commons defence committee because he had to go to Washington for urgent talks. In a story for the Sun today, Harry Cole and Paul Sims say the talks were taking place because of concerns that the risk of Russia using a nuclear weapon in the conflict has increased.

Asked about the story, the PM’s spokesperson said:

We are very clear with Putin that the use of nuclear weapons will lead to severe consequences.

I would guide away from speculating on this as an issue. I think the public need to be reassured that we are taking a strong lead in this area.

I think it would be a mistake to be drawn into speculation on this rather than focusing on what we are seeing day by day, which is a senseless and barbaric attack on civilians across Ukraine.

Updated

Tory MP tells Commons he has written to Graham Brady asking for no confidence vote in Truss

MPs are currently debating a Labour motion criticising the mini-budget. The fracking debate will start later.

In the mini-budget debate William Wragg, a Conservative MP, said that he has written a letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for a vote of no confidence in Liz Truss.

Wragg said that he would like to vote with Labour against fracking tonight, but that he would not, because he did not want to lose the Tory whip. He went on:

I would no longer be vice chair of the 1922 Committee.

I would no longer maintain a position as a chair of one of the select committees of the house. [Wragg is chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.] And indeed, because of that, my letter lodged with my honourable friend, the member for Altrincham and Sale West [Sir Graham Brady], would fall, and I wish to maintain that letter with my honourable friend.

William Wragg
William Wragg. Photograph: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA

Updated

No 10 says Truss and Hunt 'jointly' agreed to commit government to keeping pension triple lock

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said the decision to say the government remained committed to the triple lock was taken “jointly” by Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, this morning.

The spokesperson said the decision reflected the “unique position” of pensioners who are unable to increase their income through work. He told reporters:

She and the chancellor have discussed and agreed the position the prime minister set out this morning.

Liz Truss 'pulls out of planned visit'

According to Sam Blewett from the Press Association, Liz Truss has pulled out of a visit planned for this afternoon.

Updated

No 10 says Truss determined to end 'completely unacceptable' hostile briefings against Tory MPs by her aides

At the post-PMQs Downing Street the PM’s press secretary in effect confirmed the report saying Jason Stein has been suspended pending an investigation into claims that he was responsible for unauthorised negative briefings. Asked about the report, the press secretary said:

I am not going to get into individual staffing matters but the prime minister has made very clear to her team that some of the sort of briefings that we have seen are completely unacceptable about parliamentary colleagues and they must stop.

The news is clearly linked to Sajid Javid’s decision not to use the opportunity he had to put a question to Liz Truss at PMQs. Javid was on the list for a question, but waived his right to ask it. As mentioned earlier, Javid was the subject of a briefing from a No 10 source to the Sunday Times saying Truss thought he was “shit”. (See 11.51am.)

But ITV’s Robert Peston thinks that suspending Stein will not be the end of the matter.

Updated

PMQs - snap verdict

Liz Truss did enough to get through the day. That is a low hurdle, to be sure, but it was not a given. Anyone who watched her press conference on Friday, when she scarpered after taking just four questions, looking weak and broken, will have wondered whether she was up to coping with the extraordinary pressure that her multiple U-turns have placed her under. But today she sounded confident and combative. A disastrous performance might have triggered an immediate leadership challenge, but she was better than that, and so for the next few hours at least she is probably safe.

It helped that she had something to announce. On Monday Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, signalled that the government was considering shelving the triple lock on pensions. No 10 confirmed this yesterday, and James Cleverly was using the same line only this morning. (See 10.15am.) Now Truss has confirmed that the triple lock will stay. This meant at least she was on the front foot at one point, and Ian Blackford’s failure to grasp what he was being told also allowed her to deliver a competent put-down, which helped make her PMQs look OK.

Of course, the triple lock announcement amounts to another U-turn from yesterday. And we don’t know yet whether it was cleared with Hunt in advance. But, given the state of opinion in the party (and in the Tory media), it was probably inevitable.

None of this, though, changes the fundamentals: Truss is a PM shorn of all credibility, who has had to abandon almost all the policies she was defending even a week ago and who is now only being propped up by her chancellor. Starmer made these points very effectively, with questions that were much pithier than usual. Here are three of them.

A book is being written about the prime minister’s time in office. Apparently it’s going to be out by Christmas. Is that the release date or the title?

Last week the prime minister stood there and promised absolutely no spending reductions, they all cheered. This week the chancellor announced a new wave of cuts. What’s the point of a prime minister whose promises don’t even last a week?

Economic credibility - gone. And her supposed best friend the former chancellor, he’s gone as well. They’re all gone. So why is she still here?

Starmer did not leave Truss in a puddle on the floor. But the longer she stays in No 10, the better for Labour, and so strategically Starmer got the ideal result.

Truss’s main response was to accuse Labour of being in favour of militant trade unionism (a non sequitur, in the current circumstances) and to quote Peter Mandelson, saying: “I’m a fighter, not a quitter.” She may have been reminded of the line by Mandelson himself, who wrote in the Spectator two weeks ago about how it was time for Kwasi Kwarteng to show whether he was a fighter or a quitter.

Normally when politicians quote this line they are trying to make some Mandelson-related comparison. But it sounded as if Truss were using it just because she could not think of any other way of saying that she would not be resigning.

Perhaps she ought to have studied the context more closely. Mandelson used the phrase when he had already resigned as a minister. And he deployed it at an election count, after he won. Truss looks like someone whose resignation is yet to come, and who won’t be celebrating anything much at the time of the next election.

Updated

Jason Stein, a special adviser to Liz Truss, has been suspended pending an investigation, Sky News reports. Sky says he is being investigated by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics unit. There have been allegations that he was behind unauthorised negative briefings against former cabinet ministers, Sky says.

Richard Graham (Con) asks about the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

Truss says it does a fantastic job.

And that’s it. PMQs is over.

Stella Creasy (Lab) asks how getting rid of retained EU law can be in the public’s interest.

Truss accuses her of not accepting the vote for Brexit.

Helen Whately (Con) asks about social care reform. Is Truss still committed to it? (See 11.44am.)

Yes, says Truss, she says she is.

Barry Gardiner (Lab) says Truss has faced a week of mental anguish and despair. What will she do to improve mental healthcare for people in this country?

Truss says the health secretary has set out a plan addressing this.

Andrew Mitchell (Con) asks about aid spending. He seems to be looking for an assurance that Truss is committed to returning aid spending to 0.7% of national wealth.

Truss says she is proud of the government’s record on aid spending, but she refuses to give that commitment.

Updated

Nick Smith (Lab) asks about Mark Fullbrook, Truss’s chief of staff, and asks if it is wise to have a lobbyist in Downing Street.

Truss says all appointments are approved in the normal way.

Duncan Baker (Con) asks about apprenticeships.

Truss says apprenticeships are fanastic. She says 5.1m have been created since 2010.

Mark Menzies (Con) asks for an assurance that fracking companies will not be involved in deciding if there is local consent for fracking.

Truss says there will be a robust system in place for ensuring there is consent for fracking. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, will say more about that later today.

ITV’s Anushka Asthana has this on what Rees-Mogg will tell MPs.

Stewart Malcolm McDonald (SNP) says Ukraine fatigue is a worry. Will Truss ensure that political and military support for Ukraine is not a casualty of Truss’s premiership?

Truss says one of the first things she did as PM was guarantee that support for Ukraine will be at least as high next year. Ukraine can, should and must win, she says.

John Baron (Con) asks the PM to ensure she retains compassion in spending decisions, and to maintain the link between benefits and inflation.

Truss says the government will make sure the most vulnerable are protected.

Updated

Truss accuses Labour’s Meg Hillier of supporting “militant trade unions”.

David Jones (Con) asks if Truss is committed to refusing any amendments to the Northern Ireland protocol bill in the Lords. And is she opposed to any involvement of the ECJ in it?

Truss says she is committed to the bill. And any negotiations with the EU will reflect what is in it.

Updated

Philippa Whitford (SNP) says the damage has been done by the mini-budget. Why is the PM still there? And when will voters get their say?

Truss says she is facing difficult economic times. She took the decision she had to in the interests of economic stability.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks about support for carers.

Truss says the govenrment will always support the most vulnerable.

Gary Sambrook (Con) asks for an assurance that new services are built alongside new homes.

Truss says that is why they are introducing an infrastructure levy.

Updated

Blackford says Truss has thrown pensioners under a bus.

Truss says Blackford “cannot take yes for an answer”. She has been clear she is protecting pensioners, she says.

Truss says she is 'completely committed' to pensions triple lock

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says, after 10 U-turns in two weeks, we are left with a PM in office but not in power.

Now pensioners are in the frontline for cuts, he says.

He asks for another U-turn.

Truss says she does not know what Blackford is talking about. She says she and and the chancellor are “completely committed” to the triple lock.

This is a change from what No 10 said yesterday. The triple lock is staying.

Updated

Starmer says Truss’s mini-budget has imploded. He lists the measures that have “gone”, doing a call and response, and he says the chancellor has gone. Why is she still here?

Truss says: “I am a fighter not a quitter.”

She is quoting Peter Mandelson.

After the Speaker calls for quiet, she says it again. She is going to deliver, she says. She says Starmer has no idea, no plan and no alternative.

Updated

Starmer says Truss is asking him questions because she is an opposition in waiting, and Labour is a government in waiting. Why should people trust the government ever again?

Truss says she is legislating to keep the railways open. He is doing nothing.

Updated

Starmer says working people need to pay £500 more on their mortgages. What is her response? Just to say she has apologised?

Truss says Labour needs to reflect the economic reality. Interest rates have gone up around the world. She is being honest with the public, she says. And what will Labour do about workers going on strike? She will bring forward policies to address that.

He backs the strikers, we back the strivers.

Updated

Starmer says: “What’s the point of a prime minister whose promises don’t even last a week?”

Truss says Labour’s promises do not reflect reality.

Starmer says last week Truss criticised a six-month energy freeze (Labour’s plans). Then the chancellor made her accept it. How can she be accountable when she is not in charge?

Truss says Starmer has done nothing.

Keir Starmer says a book is being written about the PM’s time in office. It will be out by Christmas. Is that the release date or the title?

Truss says she has delivered the energy price guarantee, and will be cracking down on unions. That is a better record than Starmer’s.

Updated

Laurence Robertson (Con) asks if Truss agrees that local people should get more control over housing.

Truss says she agrees. She will remove top down targets.

Justin Madders (Lab) asks why the chancellor lost his job when she kept hers.

Truss says: “I have been very clear …”

That provokes laughter.

“ … that I am sorry and I have made mistakes.”

Liz Truss starts with the usual spiel about her engagements – saying she has had meetings, and more planned.

From the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith

From my colleague Pippa Crerar

From ITV’s Carl Dinnen

Liz Truss leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs.
Liz Truss leaving No 10 ahead of PMQs. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

Truss to face question from Sajid Javid at PMQs days after No 10 briefed against him brutally

PMQs is starting soon. And here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

PMQs
PMQs Photograph: HoC

Sajid Javid, the former chancellor who is second on the list, may cause problems for Truss. At the weekend Caroline Wheeler and Harry Yorke in the Sunday Times said Truss considered appointing Javid to replace Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor. But a No 10 source dismissed the story in brutal terms. Wheeler and Yorke reported:

Last night, a No 10 source denied that Javid had ever been considered for the role now filled by Hunt. “The prime minister laughed out loud at the suggestion,” they said. “She has sat in the cabinet with Javid for ten years and she knows who is good and who is shit.”

Here are two stories from the other papers today that may come up at PMQs.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is preparing to raid the profits of banks and energy companies in an attempt to fill a £40bn fiscal hole through a mix of tax rises and public spending cuts.

Hunt’s Budget on October 31 is due to include big tax rises, with allies of the chancellor saying they expect him to target the earnings of lenders and oil and gas companies. He has spoken of “eye-wateringly difficult” decisions.

Jeremy Hunt is poised to delay Boris Johnson’s flagship social care reform and has been warned that his spending cuts may have to be tougher even than George Osborne’s era of austerity.

The cap on the sum people pay for care in old age is set to be put back by a year or more in the first of a series of “eye-watering” cuts the new chancellor is considering to balance the books.

Treasury officials suggested scrapping the reform entirely or kicking it into the long grass, but Hunt is said to believe that a one-year delay is politically feasible as he tries to save the public finances by ripping up Liz Truss’s plans.

Cat Neilan from Tortoise has more on what Sir Graham Brady may be up to. (See 10.26am.)

Plans to set up Great British Railways delayed, MPs told

Plans to create Great British Railways, a public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways, have been delayed, MPs have been told.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the transport secretary, told the Commons transport committee that the transport bill, which would have set up the new body, has been delayed because legislation to deal with the energy crisis is being prioritised. She said:

The challenges of things like the energy legislation we’ve got to bring in and various others has meant that we have lost the opportunity to have that [bill] in this third session.

What we are continuing to pitch for will be what I would call a narrow bill around the future of transport technologies, the legislation around things like e-scooters.

As PA Media reports, the bill included the establishment of Great British Railways (GBR), which will absorb state-owned infrastructure management company Network Rail and issue contracts to private companies to run trains. The body was due to begin operating in early 2024 but that timetable has been scrapped.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Photograph: House of Commons/PA

Updated

Tory MPs told vote on Labour's motion on fracking being treated as confidence motion

Tory MPs have been told that they have to vote against the Labour motion on fracking this evening, Sky’s Beth Rigby reports. Craig Whittaker, deputy chief whip, has told them that the government is treating this as a confidence issue – ie, equivalent to a vote of no confidence in the government.

This is because the fracking motion is not a normal opposition day motion that simply criticises the government. The Tories often abstain on these. Instead, copying a tactic used by opponents of a no-deal Brexit in 2019, the motion would allow Labour to take control of the Commons timetable on Tuesday so that MPs could spend the day debating and voting through a ban on fracking for shale gas bill.

You can read the motion in full on the order paper here, and my colleague Jessica Elgot has a story explaining it here.

Many Tory MPs oppose fracking, but few, if any, approve of Keir Starmer taking control of the parliamentary timetable, and so the government should be able to win the vote comfortably. But Labour will be able to say that MPs who voted for the government voted against a ban on fracking.

My colleague Pippa Crerar says Labour has got its social media adverts prepared already.

Updated

Tory MP Steve Double says Truss's position 'increasingly untenable'

The Conservative MP Steve Double has said that Liz Truss’s position is “increasingly untenable” and that we are now getting to the point where she will have to “consider her position”. He told Times Radio:

I think her position is becoming increasingly untenable. We’ve seen a complete reversal of just about everything she stood for in her leadership election campaign.

I think many of us are asking exactly what does Liz Truss now believe and stand for because she seems to have abandoned virtually everything that she told us she was about. I think she is absolutely the last chance saloon …

It’s becoming abundantly clear when you look at the loss of confidence in her as prime minister from the general public, and increasingly I think the loss of confidence in her from the parliamentary party, that we are going to get to the point where she really does have to consider her position and for the good of the country, step aside, and I think we will probably come to that place quite soon.

Although Double’s language is slightly qualified (“increasingly untenable … going to get to the point where … probably”), essentially he is saying Truss has to go.

That is certainly the view of Tom Larkin, custodian of the Sky News ‘calls for Truss to quit’ spreadsheet. By his count, Double is the sixth Conservative saying in public she should resign.

In an interview with Times Radio, Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, refused to say that Labour was committed to keeping the pensions triple lock. Asked what a Labour government would do, she said:

We can be categorical that we’ve consistently voted to keep it, and we don’t want to see more pensioners pushed into poverty.

But what I can’t do today, and I’m not going to do, is make commitments for the next general election, which we think will be in a couple of years’ time, because we don’t know what we’re going to inherit from the government.

We think it’s going to be the worst economic situation that an incoming government has inherited in potentially the last century, and every commitment that we make in the next general election will be fully costed.

Lisa Nandy.
Lisa Nandy. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

IFS says next year benefits will be worth 6% less in real terms than pre-pandemic, even with inflation uprating

The inflation figure out today, 10.1%, is particularly important for two reasons. The government normally uprates benefits for the year ahead in line with the inflation figure for the proceeding September. And the triple lock, which was introduced by the coalition, means that the state pension rises in line with inflation, or earnings, or by 2.5% – whichever is highest. Earnings are rising by less than inflation, and so in normal circumstances pensioners and benefits recipients would now know they would be getting 10.1% for 2023-24.

But the government has refused to confirm that benefits will rise in line with inflation (even though ministers have hinted they will). And a triple lock rethink is taking place (although the triple lock may well survive, as a result of a Tory backlash).

Even if benefits do go up by 10.1%, they will still be worth 6% less in real terms than what they were worth pre-pandemic, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says. In a briefing, the IFS’s Heidi Karjalainen said:

The inflation figures out today mean that - if the government uprates benefits with inflation, as is typical - most working-age benefits will go up by 10.1% in April.

But this would still leave their real value on course to be 6% below their pre-pandemic levels, equivalent to almost £500 per year for the average out-of-work claimant - and even this assumes that benefit recipients will continue to receive equivalent support for rising energy bills as they do under the (now shorter-lived) energy price guarantee.

This is a consequence of below-inflation increases in April this year, when benefit rates failed to keep pace with an accelerating rate of inflation.

Updated

According to the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges, more than 15% of Conservative MPs (or at least 54 of them) have already written to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for a vote of no confidence in Liz Truss.

Under the current rules, a new leader like Truss cannot be subject to a no confidence vote until a year after taking office. That would mean she was safe for another 10 and a half months.

But the 1922 Committee can easily change these rules, and it will do so if it concludes that that is what a majority of Tory MPs want.

In his morning interview round James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, echoed the No 10 line from yesterday and refused to say that the government remained committed to the triple lock on pensions.

The 2019 Conservative party manifesto said that triple lock would stay and Cleverly told Sky News: “We do take manifesto commitments incredibly seriously, as you know.”

But he refused to restate the commitment, saying:

We’ve seen those inflation figures, obviously the chancellor is going to be making a statement to the house in just over a week’s time.

The decisions that he and the Treasury team will be making will be very much informed by those figures.

But boring, though, that is ... you know that I’m not going to be pre-announcing any of the measures that might come in that statement on 31 [October].

Today’s newspaper front pages give a sense of quite how much anger Liz Truss will provoke if she does abandon the triple lock. Pensioners are much more likely to vote Tory (and buy newspapers) than younger people.

These are from the Times’ Steven Swinford, on what to expect from PMQs.

James Cleverly: ‘mistakes happen’ but the government has moved on

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, was doing interviews on behalf of the government. Asked about the Tory turmoil, he said that “mistakes happen” but that the government has moved on after Liz Truss’s U-turns on tax cuts. My collegue Rowena Mason has the story here.

Liz Truss to face crucial PMQs amid warnings pensioners could lose £442 a year if triple lock abandoned

Good morning. PMQs is often dismissed a pointless pantomime, but one function it performs well is to serve as a barometer of political authority. A PM or opposition leader who crumbles at the dispatch box is not going to survive for long (being hopeless at PMQs was a major factor behind the Tories’ decision to dump Iain Duncan Smith as their leader in 2003) and that is why today’s session will be a make-or-break one for Liz Truss.

It is only her third PMQs since becoming prime minister, but it will be the first time she has faced the Commons since sacking her chancellor (for implementing policies including one she reportedly forced him to announce despite his reservations), dumping almost all the measures in her mini-budget, and abandoning the two-year energy price guarantee that, until Monday, was the one policy she was still claiming credit for. The word “humiliating” is overused in political reporting, but it is barely adequate to describe quite how damaging the events of the past week have been to Truss’s reputation.

Today she has got to persuade her MPs that, somehow, she can pick herself up and carry on. An adequate or good performance is unlikely to help her much, on its own, in the long term. But a disaster could accelerate moves to get rid of her.

As for what is happening on that front, no one is entirely sure. Tory MPs are mostly agreed that at some point she will go, and that the parliamentary party needs to settle on a replacement without giving party members a vote, but at the moment there is no consensus on who that person should be. The most powerful figure in this process is Sir Graham Brady who, as chair of the 1922 Committee, has the job of knowing what MPs think, and conveying their collective view to the PM. He does it very well. But he is also remarkably discreet, and journalists do not have a clear idea as to what he is up to.

Here is our overnight story on the Tory plotting.

As if Truss’s problems were not bad enough, she also faces a growing Tory revolt over her refusal to commit to maintaining the pensions triple lock. With figures out this morning showing inflation running at 10.1% in September, this is the amount by which pensions should rise from April next year if the government maintains the triple lock, as Truss was promising only two weeks ago. But this week No 10 has floated the possibility that it may be suspended.

Sir Steve Webb, a former Lib Dem pensions minister, said this morning if the state pension goes up in line with inflation, it will rise from £185.15 a week to £203.85.

But if the triple lock does not apply, and pensions rise by 5.5%, in line with earnings, the weekly new state pension would be around £8.50 a week lower than this, adding up to an annual loss of £442, he said.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the transport secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.

12pm: Liz Truss faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

After 12.45pm: MPs debate a Labour motion criticising the government’s handling of the mini-budget, and calling for the publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecast immediately.

3pm: Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of Englands’s deputy governor for financial stability, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee on what the committee calls “autumn 2022 fiscal events”.

Around 4pm: MPs debate a Labour motion saying time should be set aside in parliament on 29 November so that the Commons can pass a bill to ban fracking.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com

Updated

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