LIZ Truss was jeered in the Commons after she told MPs that a General Election was the “last thing we need”.
The Prime Minister has faced calls to hold a new Westminster vote even from within her own party after reports that she could be set to scrap manifesto pledges on which the Tories were elected in 2019.
The sweeping changes to fiscal policy made in Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini-Budget” that led to the UK’s economic crisis, including the scrapping of the cap on bankers’ bonuses, were also without a mandate from the public.
However, Truss will resist any calls to ask the UK’s public for a mandate due to devastating polling for her party which suggests Labour would win by a landslide.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the Tory leader was asked by Labour MP Matt Western if she would “give way” to the public.
Western said: “I’m not sure how to measure a good honeymoon, but after five weeks of a crisis conceived in Downing Street, of crashing pensions, interest rates rising, mortgage market turmoil and complete financial chaos, the country has been left wanting divorce.
“In two recent polls, 60% of this country want an immediate General Election,” he said. “The Prime Minister claims she’s in listening mode. Will she give way to the public?”
In response, Truss said: “I think the last thing we need is a General Election.”
Jeers erupted from the Commons benches as the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle looked to quieten the room ahead of an urgent question from Labour’s shadow chancellor on the economic crisis.
Rachel Reeves asked Chancellor Kwarteng to make a statement on the turmoil which followed in the wake of his “mini-Budget”.
Kwarteng did not appear in the Commons as he was in Washington DC meeting with the International Monetary Fund, which has twice called on the UK Government to re-evaluate its disastrous policies.
Reeves had asked: “The mini-Budget just 19 days ago was a bonfire made up of unfunded tax cuts, excessive borrowing and the repeatedly undermining of economic institutions.
“It was built and then set ablaze by a Conservative Party totally out of control, not ‘disrupters’ but pyromaniacs. And the fire has spread. Yet still the government still denies all responsibility.
“So will the Minister tell the House what guarantees will the government give that the currency slide will stop and that people’s pensions are safe?”
Responding in Kwarteng’s stead, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp claimed that the economic crisis, high inflation, and rising interest rates were a pattern seen “across Western economies”.
“Let me assure the House that the fundamentals of the UK economy remain resilient,” Philp added.
