Prime Minister Liz Truss
(Picture: PA Wire)Liz Truss was on Monday meeting with Conservative MPs as she battled to remain as Prime Minister.
Ms Truss was set to hold talks with members of the One Nation Group of Tories on Monday evening after holding a reception with her Cabinet colleagues.
Despite new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s emergency statement on last month’s mini-budget, pressure is still mounting on the Prime Minister after her tax-cutting plans sparked turmoil in the financial markets.
Three Tory rebels have called for her to quit and a fourth, Sir Roger Gale, on Monday suggested she may review her position in the coming weeks.
A Downing Street source said the mood in No10 was “very purposeful” and the PM was “getting on with the job”.
But some Conservative MPs were saying privately that it was no longer a question of if Ms Truss will be removed but when. One senior Tory MP said: “It’s still up to Liz Truss to come forward before the entire parliamentary party this week and tell them why she deserves to remain as Prime Minister. Meeting with just the One Nation Group is not good enough.” Another added: “If [Jeremy Hunt] rips up the mini-budget this morning then Liz Truss has to seriously consider her position.”
A former minister said that Tory MPs were “walking around the problem” of removing the PM and there was “no easy route from a to b”.
They added, however, that even if Mr Hunt’s emergency statement today brought economic stability it would probably not stop the political instability.
Some Conservatives said they would gauge the response to the statement before deciding their next steps. “The next 24 hours will be crucial,” said one.
Sir Roger Gale told Sky News that power had switched from No10 to No11 after Mr Hunt’s appointment on Friday.
He added that the Chancellor’s fuller fiscal statement on October 31, which will include a full analysis of the Government’s tax and spending plans by independent watchdog the OBR, would be “make or break for the new Chancellor and also for the Prime Minister if she’s still in post at that time, and I have to say that because it may be that she will review her own position.”
There are reports that some Tory MPs have submitted letters of no confidence in Ms Truss to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories. Under the current rules Ms Truss cannot face such a vote for 11 months but some MPs are lobbying Sir Graham to change the rules or urge her to quit.
Ex-minister Victoria Atkins, left, said she wanted Ms Truss to “get us back on to the right track”. Asked if she thought she could carry on as Prime Minister, she told the BBC: “If she’s able to bring those values to the fore then I’m very happy for her to do that.”
