Liz Truss enters Downing St on Monday morning
(Picture: REUTERS)Liz Truss may decide to quit in the coming weeks with Jeremy Hunt already “de facto Prime Minister”, a veteran Conservative MP said on Monday.
Sir Roger Gale, an outspoken critic of Ms Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson, said power had switched from No10 to No11 following Mr Hunt’s appointment as Chancellor on Friday.
His comments came after three Conservative MPs called for the Prime Minister to quit and rumours of plots to oust her swirled around Westminster.
Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallis all called on the Prime Minister to go on Sunday, while other senior figures within the parliamentary party expressed deep unease with Ms Truss’s leadership but stopped short of calling for her to go.
Mr Hunt, on Monday, was set to fast track a statement on the economy in a bid to calm jittery financial markets after they were spooked by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax slashing mini-budget last month.
A fuller fiscal statement on October 31 would be make or break for the PM, Sir Roger added.
“That [the 31st] will be make or break for the new Chancellor and also for the Prime Minister if she’s still in post at that time, and I have to say that because it may be that she will review her own position.”
He added on Sky News that while he supported Ms Truss’s plan to stimulate economic growth it had backfired.
“She took some measures that quite clearly were not palatable either to the public or to the markets. And that has been what may well prove to be a downfall.
“The power in Downing Street is in No11 now not No10. I think Jeremy Hunt is de facto Prime Minister. He’s a very experienced man, very experienced in Cabinet, he has been Foreign Secretary as well as the Health Secretary.
“He’s a businessman, self made businessman, he understands economics, and I think he can get this right but it’s quite clear that all the shots are being called from No11.”
Amid reports that dozens of Tory MPs have already been sending letters of no confidence in Ms Truss into Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, Sir Roger said the “last thing we want is another leadership election”.
He added: “If the Prime Minister were to decide her position was untenable and she went then there would have to be I think a coronation. Now in order for that to happen you’ve got to have an agreed candidate and at the moment I see no single agreed candidate within the party.”
Meanwhile, former Chancellor George Osborne said he believed Ms Truss would fall before Christmas.
“She is PINO at the moment – Prime Minister In Name Only,” he told the Andrew Neil Show.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Mr Hunt insisted that Ms Truss remained “in charge” and that voters could still put their faith in her.
“She’s listened. She’s changed. She’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics, which is to change tack,” he said.
“What we’re going to do is to show not just what we want but how we’re going to get there.”
Senior Tories rallied behind the PM on Sunday evening following calls for her resignation, with Penny Mordaunt using an article in the Telegraph to urge her party colleagues to stand behind Ms Truss.
“Our country needs stability, not a soap opera,” she wrote.
And Nadine Dorries, a former culture secretary, suggested that those attempting to unseat Ms Truss were allies of her leadership rival Rishi Sunak.
She tweeted: “I cannot imagine there’s one G7 country which thinks we’re worthy of a place at the table.
“The removal of one electorally successful PM, the disgraceful plotting to remove another by those who didn’t get their way first time round is destabilising our economy and our reputation.”
Polling released on Sunday night underlined the scale of the challenge facing Ms Truss as she seeks to restore her political and economic credibility, with Opinium forecasting that Labour would win 411 seats were a General Election to be held.
