Liz Truss has 17 days to save her job

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Oct 2022 09:46
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A "medium-term fiscal plan" will be published on October 31, after which Tories will decide if Truss is deserving of her job as PM.

Liz Truss, Prime Minister of the UK.

After releasing an elite-serving emergency tax-slashing mini-budget last month, British Prime Minister Liz Truss is in hot water as she faces major backlash from Conservative MPs and the United Kingdom sinks deeper into financial disaster and record inflation, with the British pound hitting its lowest level since 1971.

Tory MPs are giving Truss 17 days to save her job, in addition to pushing forward Rishi Sunak and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt to replace Truss, according to the Daily Mail.

Truss could be facing a leadership challenge, according to the Daily Mail, if Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's policies don't fix the market chaos caused by Truss' so-called mini-budget.

Some MPs are saying that Kwarteng's "medium-term fiscal plan", which will be published on October 31, will somewhat strike a balance out the turmoil with Truss' mini-budget. British think tanks speculate that the black hole that needs to be filled could top $67 billion.

“It is all about the statement on October 31 now – she [Truss] has got days to turn things around, that's all," said an unnamed minister to the Daily Mail.

“'She is going to have to reverse the mini-Budget and she is probably going to have to sack Kwasi. Even then, it might not be enough if she can't regain the confidence of the markets. The worry is that she still appears to be in denial about how bad things are,” the minister argued.

Another anonymous Conservative MP, speaking to the Daily Mail, said: “If she [Truss] loses the confidence of the parliamentary party and cannot regain it, then she will have to go. Of course it will look bad. But we have a duty to stop things descending into the kind of chaos that causes long-term damage.”

The Times, in addition, has also reported that 30 senior MPs are forming a "council of elders" to oust Truss.

“Rishi's people, Penny's people and the sensible Truss supporters who realize she's a disaster need to sit down together and work out who the unity candidate is. It's either Rishi as prime minister with Penny as his deputy and foreign secretary, or Penny as prime minister with Rishi as chancellor”, an unnamed MP told The Times.