DONALD Trump has expressed his admiration for embattled Prime Minister Liz Truss as rumours swirl there could be a General Election as soon as next year amid grumbling from backbench Tories.
The former US president has said he supported Truss’s tax-cutting ambitions and said the Prime Minister seemed “very nice, very good”.
He claimed Truss had received “a great send-off from the Queen”, who died two days after appointing the new Prime Minister.
"I cut taxes very substantially and we did much more business, and she’s done that," he told GB News.
"And I know she’s taken some hits for it, which surprises me actually, but it could be at the end of the day you do bigger revenues. It’s going to be very interesting.”
On her tax plans, he added: "What she did is very inverse to what some people thought. But that doesn’t mean they were right. I have a feeling she might be right.”
It comes amid reports she is drawing up plans to crack the whip with potential rebels, who are rumoured to be threatened by suspension from the party if they move against the mini-budget unveiled last month.
The Chancellor’s “fiscal event” triggered turmoil on the markets, with traders spooked – and some making “small fortunes” out of the chaos – by now-abandoned plans to cut taxes on the super-rich by increasing state borrowing.
A source told The Sun they think a General Election next year is inevitable because the Conservatives are currently an “ungovernable rabble”.
Truss will have been embarrassed by Cabinet members publicly contradicting each other on whether the Government will cancel planed increases in benefits to cut public spending.
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt came out in favour of former chancellor Rishi Sunak’s pledge earlier this year to ensure benefits will rise in line with inflation – made before prices began to rocket to historic highs.
Former transport secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio on Tuesday Tory MPs could rebel against the Prime Minister unless she turns around the party’s fortunes as Labour were projected to thrash the Conservatives come the next election.
The Telegraph reports Tory high command is planning to enforce “brutal” party discipline by removing the whip from MPs who do not back the measures included in the mini-budget, such as removing the cap on bankers’ bonuses.
Other big beasts on the Tory backbenches have gone public with their objections to Truss’s radical agenda, including ex-Cabinet ministers such as Michael Gove and Nadine Dorries – who has called for an election, saying the Prime Minister does not have a “mandate” for her policies.
Addressing activists and MPs on the last day of the Conservative conference, Truss again said she was prepared to take unpopular decisions and was interrupted by Greenpeace protesters.
As the demonstrators were escorted from the hall, she echoed Trump, telling security guards: “Let’s get them removed.”
Truss said she was ready to weather more “disruption” adding: “We need to do things differently. We need to step up.
“As the last few weeks have shown, it will be difficult. Whenever there’s change, there is disruption.
“And not everyone will be in favour of change, but everyone will benefit from the result – a growing economy and a better future.”
