WHISPERS of a Liz Truss comeback appear to be getting louder after several MPs have reportedly begun to join a WhatsApp group once used to bolster her leadership.
According to Sky News, Truss is rumoured to be plotting with like-minded MPs ahead of the budget to lobby the government for tax cuts.
A source familiar with the WhatsApp group told the broadcaster there is “a lot going on behind the scenes” among the clan known as the Conservative Growth Group (CGG) – a pack of Tory MPs who still believe in the Truss vision.
Truss resigned as PM after just 45 days in office – becoming the shortest-serving PM the UK has ever had.
The CGG apparently has more than 50 MPs signed up and plans to meet next Wednesday and there are rumours she may be planning an intervention this weekend, possibly with a column in a Sunday newspaper.
On the back of the better-than-expected Bank of England forecast this week – which said the predicted recession this year will be shorter and less severe than previously anticipated – Truss supporters want taxes to be chopped despite Chancellor Jeremy Hunt insisting he won’t, Politico states.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said earlier this week: “If we don’t get growth before we enter the year of an election, the public will have arrived at a very firm view by then.”
Policies on childcare, family taxation and the way the lifetime allowance affects doctors are also said to be in the CGG’s sights.
The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls also said in a column neither Truss or Boris Johnson believe their careers are over and both are likely to be “a thorn in Rishi Sunak’s side” ahead of the next election.
On the other hand though, one “very senior Conservative” told the News Agents’ Emily Maitlis: “I suspect the only people shouting ‘come back’ will be wearing white coats.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson said the hangover from the mini-budget is still being felt, adding the immediate increase to mortgage rates had resulted in less money being invested in the UK.
Reports earlier this week suggested Truss was plotting a comeback with advice from right-wing US politicians.
Truss went on a trip to Washington before the winter holidays and met with Republican lawmakers and activists to crib notes on how she might push the Government to come back around to her way of thinking.
She is said to have met with Republican congressman Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, a staunch economic conservative.
He is the chair of the Republican Study Committee, a large group of lawmakers seen as the “ideological anchor” of the Republican party.
The group has inspired Truss to set up an equivalent in the Commons, bringing together likeminded small-state conservatives in parliament.
Hern told Politico Truss envisaged the Tory equivalent as being a vehicle to “house all of their ideas into a collective group, in order to hold the current prime minister accountable” and said she was considering naming it the Conservative Growth Group.
