London With her back to the wall, British Prime Minister Liz Truss tried to save her political career on Wednesday. “I’m a fighter and I won’t give up,” Truss exclaimed during Parliamentary Question Time after opposition leader Keir Starmer had previously listed her long list of policy U-turns and mistakes over the past few weeks – to thunderous applause. “I’m sorry, I made mistakes,” admitted the badly battered head of government, but “now we have to get on with our work.”
Her first appearance in the House of Commons, after Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt buried almost her entire economic policy agenda earlier in the week, was seen as an acid test in London. After her false start, can Truss stay in power for at least a few more weeks? The Prime Minister was unable to answer this question from numerous MPs. The fact that many of her party friends also followed the appearance of her own head of government in silence shows her dramatic loss of power.
Barely 40 days after taking office, demands for her resignation are not only coming from the opposition. The 47-year-old is also losing support every day within her own Conservative Party ranks. “It’s no longer a question of if Liz Truss goes, it’s a question of when she goes,” former Tory minister Michael Gove predicted this week. Conservative MP Steve Double gave the head of government only until the end of October to change course.
Six Conservative MPs have now publicly called for Truss’ resignation. Graham Brady, chairman of the influential “1922 Committee” that would have to decide on an internal party replacement, is said to have already received numerous declarations of no confidence from the Tory group. According to the party statutes, the Prime Minister may not be challenged for a year. However, no one in London believes that Truss can remain in office against the declared will of her group.
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One reason why the prime minister has not yet been overthrown is probably the unresolved question of who will succeed him. In addition to Treasury Secretary Hunt, the leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, and Truss’s rival and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, are also named.
>> Read here: Commentary: Liz Truss is still Prime Minister, but she has long since lost power
Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace has ruled out an application. Apparently, however, so far no candidate has enough support in the divided party. While the right wing of the Brexit supporters still supports Truss for the time being, the moderate Tories are reluctant to overthrow the third prime minister in just three years, after Theresa May and Boris Johnson.
The dramatically poor poll numbers increase the pressure on Truss and her party. According to the latest opinion polls, the opposition Labor Party is around 30 percentage points ahead of the Tories, who have been in power for the past twelve years. Even a majority of members of the Conservative Party are now demanding the resignation of their own head of government.
October 31: Fateful day for Truss
Tory strategists warn, however, that a change at the top could throw the newly stabilized government into fresh chaos. This could worry the nervous financial markets again. A critical date could be October 31, when Treasury Secretary Hunt wants to present his draft budget.
Earlier in the week, Hunt had largely withdrawn the tax breaks announced by Truss and announced tough austerity measures. His medium-term goal is to reduce government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). At the moment, the debt ratio is just over 100 percent.
Despite the U-turn in tax policy, there is still a gap of around £40 billion (around EUR 46 billion) in the British budget, which Hunt wants to close with social cuts, among other things. Unlike her finance minister, Truss confirmed on Wednesday that state pensions should rise in line with the inflation rate – as promised in the party program.
Consumer prices rose 10.1 percent in September, driven by high food costs. This is the highest level in 40 years. The September value is usually used as a benchmark for pension increases. That would cost the state an additional £6 billion compared with the March 2022 estimate.
New dispute over cuts in social benefits
Although the prime minister assured her that her finance minister also stood by the promise, Hunt has so far refused to commit to adjusting pensions for inflation. The open dispute is also politically particularly sensitive because many pensioners are among the regular voters of the Tories and numerous conservative parliamentarians have therefore threatened not to support a real pension cut.
If Truss keeps his promise, Hunt will have to find the missing funds elsewhere. It is unclear whether other social benefits will be cut in real terms. There is also speculation as to whether the finance minister could ask the banks and energy companies to pay up. Unlike Truss, Hunt has not fundamentally rejected a new special tax on crisis profits (windfall tax). The tax incentives in the “investment zones” announced by Truss could also be lower than planned.
Further trouble for the conservative government threatens with energy costs. Truss originally wanted to cap the average household’s annual electricity and gas bill at £2,500 for 24 months. Hunt has now limited energy aid to six months, which would result in electricity and heating bills doubling to £5,000 from April. The government wants to cushion social hardship with “more targeted” state aid.
There was to be another showdown in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. Labor wants MPs to vote on new fracking ban Truss recently lifted the ban on the environmentally controversial gas production process in England. However, many rural Tories oppose fracking. Craig Whittaker, deputy leader of the Conservative Group, spoke of a secret test of confidence in the government and warned his colleagues against voting with the opposition.
More: Secret change of power: New finance minister corrects course of Prime Minister Liz Truss