Rebel Cabinet ministers who helped derail the Tories’ conference face dressings down next week, No10 warned today.
Collective responsibility collapsed in Birmingham as senior ministers spoke about issues beyond their brief, attacked policies and tried to force the Prime Minister into corners over benefit hikes.
Liz Truss ’s press secretary said today: “There’s always going to be differences of opinion between people.
“People are entitled to their personal opinions but they should be raised in a more constructive and private manner.”
Asked if that message was “going to be rammed home next week in Westminster”, the press secretary said: “You’ll have to speak to the whips about that, but that probably answers your question.”
He refused to rule out retrospective action, saying: ”It’s one for the whips”.
He denied Cabinet discipline had “broken down”, adding: “Collective responsibility is the same as it always has been.”
Asked if Penny Mordaunt could lose the whip after she urged the PM to raise benefits by inflation, he replied: “It’s one for the whips but I don’t imagine that to be the case”.
It came after a torrid few days in which Cabinet ministers Penny Mordaunt and Robert Buckland publicly warned against a real-terms cut to benefits.
And the Foreign Secretary slapped down a Cabinet colleague for claiming MPs attempting a “coup” when they forced the PM to drop a tax cut for the rich.
Suella Braverman triggered anger when she accused party rebels such as Michael Gove following Ms Truss’s U-turn over the 45p Income Tax rate.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: "She chose the words that she chose.
“But when you're in Government, you have the opportunity to feed your ideas straight to the top machine.
“It's always best done around the Cabinet table or in the Cabinet committee meetings.
“My view is anything to do with policy or the relationship with other ministers - always better to feed straight into the boss.”
In a speech to the Tory conference lasting barely half an hour, Liz Truss announced no new policy and instead attacked the “anti-growth coalition” she claimed was holding Britain back.
After the speech Downing Street promised “a lot of policy” before Christmas.
The PM’s Press Secretary said: “I think that there's going to be quite a lot of policy announcements over the next month or so. I don’t think you’re going to be short of policy announcements from this government.”
He added: “Between now and the end of the year you’ll have a very good idea of the packages.”
He went on: “There's a lot of work to do. Some of it is some of it is is quite complicated, and it's more important that we get things right rather than just doing things sort of, on the hoof.
“But between now and the rest of the year, you're going to get a very clear picture of the sort of supply side policies which we think are going to improve the long-term growth trend of the economy.”
