Truss faces power troubles as senior minister lodges in resignation

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
20 Oct 2022 11:09

After a mini-budget plan that sunk Truss' leadership into a crisis, a senior minister has already resigned, plunging the situation into a deeper one.

Liz Truss, UK's Conservative Prime Minister.

On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss faced a challenge to her power in the government as a senior minister resigned from her administration, along with a wave of criticism and a vote in the House of Commons that burst into chaos.

Last month, an economic plan that her government put forward triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that ousted Kwasi Kwarteng, Truss' Treasury chief, whom Truss replaced with Jeremy Hunt.

Tories have been pressuring Truss to resign. However, she remained defiant, refusing to back down.

“Nobody has a route plan. It’s all sort of hand-to-hand fighting on a day-to-day basis,” said Simon Hoare, a Conservative lawmaker. Truss has "about 12 hours" to have her situation, he stressed.

Last week, the Daily Mail reported that Tory MPs were giving Truss a chance until October 31 to save her job, in addition to pushing forward Rishi Sunak and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt to replace her.

On Wednesday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, lodged in her resignation after breaking policies, sending an official document from her personal email account. In her resignation letter, she criticized Truss and expressed "concerns about the direction of this government."

“The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes,” she said.

On Monday, Truss issued an apology via the BBC for "mistakes" in her agenda: "I do want to accept responsibility and say sorry for the mistakes that have been made," she said, adding, "I wanted to act but to help people with their energy bills to deal with the issue of high taxes, but we went too far and too fast."

She reiterated that she is "sticking around because I was elected to deliver for this country, and that is what I am determined to do."