Senior MP urges Tories not to quit and gives Liz Truss until Christmas

Tobias Ellwood was stripped of the Tory whip in July. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Tobias Ellwood has urged moderate Conservatives not to leave the party as he suggested Liz Truss has until Christmas to turn her troubled premiership around.

The senior MP, who chairs parliament’s defence select committee but was stripped of the Tory whip in July, said the party should stick to its sensible and fiscally responsible roots.