Tory MP Robert Halfon launched a bold attack on Liz Truss’s Government as he called for a “dramatic reset” in the coming days.
Amid rising unrest within the party, the MP for Harlow warned the current Government is trashing blue collar Conservatism.
Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, he said: “I worry that over the past few weeks, the Government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra-free market experiments. And this is not where the country is.
"There's been one horror story after another."
"This is not what the public wants"
— Sophy Ridge on Sunday & The Take (@RidgeOnSunday) October 16, 2022
Robert Halfon MP says he worries the govt has looked like "libertarian jihadists" and adds that the PM needs to apologise and "set out a vision for compassionate conservatism with social justice at its heart"#Ridge: https://t.co/ZoMhCmTZj3 pic.twitter.com/8AYm2228wN
Asked if Ms Truss should lead the party into the next election, he said: "At this time, I'm not calling for the Prime Minister to go. I worry about further political instability, but even more economic instability. But things have to improve.
"Because if things don't change, I just think that perhaps things may not be able to carry on in the way that they have been."
His comments come amid multiple reports of plans to remove the Prime Minister amid the economic and political turmoil since the mini-Budget.
“Of course, colleagues are unhappy with what is going on,” the chair of the Education Select Committee said.
“We’ve haemorrhaged in the opinion polls. The public just can’t understand what has happened.
“Many of them are frightened about their future and the cost of living. It’s inevitable that colleagues are just, we’re all talking to see what can be done about it.”
According to The Times, MPs are now privately calling for the Prime Minister to step down after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor.
Despite Mr Hunt saying he now has a “clean slate” on the mini-Budget, one MP said: “Having dispatched her Chancellor, who fell on his sword to defend her economic plan, I think it makes it very hard for her to survive.”
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has apparently been touted as a unity candidate, while allies of Rishi Sunak are ready to install the former Chancellor if Ms Truss resigns, according to the newspaper’s report.
Both the Prime Minister and Chancellor will meet at Chequers to thrash out their economic plans.
Despite the criticism for Ms Truss, her new Chancellor insisted her idea to promote economic growth was the rght one.
He added: “Liz Truss has listened, she’s changed, she’s been willing to do that most difficult thing in politics which is to change tack."
Before later adding: “The Prime Minister’s in charge.”
