A TORY MP has claimed that the Prime Minister has just 12 hours to save her job as another argued Liz Truss should be ousted from No 10 today.
Simon Hoare said that if the Prime Minister was given a “career review” on Thursday then “the score sheet isn’t looking very good”.
This comes following a chaotic evening at Westminster in which there were allegations of “manhandling” in the lobby ahead of a key fracking vote.
Asked if Truss was still up to the job, Hoare told the BBC: “I think she could be. One can’t say hand on heart today. If this was a career review […] then the score isn’t looking very good.
“But I am a glass half full sort of person.
“Can the ship be turned around? Yes. But I think there is about 12 hours to do it. I think today, tomorrow are crunch days.”
Tory MP Crispin Blunt echoed those sentiments. He said: “We need to effect a change, frankly today, in order to stop this shambles and give our country the governance it needs under our constitution.”
On Wednesday morning, it was reported that Labour’s motion to ban fracking was to be treated as a confidence vote in the Government.
Shortly before the results of the vote were announced, Climate Minister Graham Stuart told the Commons this was not the case.
However, overnight this was followed by another U-turn with multiple political journalists sharing a message sent by Downing Street in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The message said: “The Prime Minister has full confidence in the Chief and Deputy Chief Whip.
“Throughout the day, the whips had treated the vote as a confidence motion.
“The minister at the despatch box was told, mistakenly, by Downing Street to say that it was not.”
So I had under six hours kip and still missed stuff. Got this at half one in the morning about the chaos in parliament last night https://t.co/lCjnycehXv pic.twitter.com/WCKgKNPFjJ
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) October 20, 2022
There was also confusion on Wednesday evening regarding the Chief and Deputy Chief Whip’s position.
Initially, it was widely reported that both had left their roles before a No 10 spokesperson later confirmed this was not the case.
The message continued: “However, Conservative MPs were fully aware that the vote was subject to a three-line whip.
“The whips will now be speaking to Conservative MPs who failed to support the government.
“Those without a reasonable excuse for failing to vote with the Government can expect proportionate disciplinary action.”
