She was given the job back. That was already controversial.
There was a view amongst some that Rishi Sunak had done that in order to bring the right of the party, because Suella Braverman is considered a figurehead on the right, to bind the right of the party into his government, because he doesn’t want all these divisions.
But at the same time, there’s no sense that Rishi Sunakin the way that Boris Johnson stood firmly behind Priti Patel, who is the former home secretary, so there’s not a sense that Rishi Sunak is necessarily standing behind Suella Braverman.
And one source said to me, one ally of Rishi Sunak said to me this week, that actually there’s a view that perhaps the migrant crisis, the small boat crisis, is such an intractable, difficult problem.
Maybe he is happy for her to own that, to take responsibility for that problem.
And if she falls on her sword because of that problem, maybe for Rishi Sunak, that’s quite useful because he can say to the right of the party, Well, I gave her the opportunity.
Liz Trussdid not apologize as she gave her final speech as prime minister.
Sky News political editor Beth Rigby noted how she, like Boris Johnson, focused on her successes and not the missteps.
Beth said: “I think there was an opportunity there for Liz Truss to do what she actually did in front of the media on Monday after Jeremy Hunt junked her entire budget and say ‘I am sorry for the mistakes I made.’
“You did not see that at the podium. There was no I am sorry.
“It was very Johnsonian in that way, but a different style. That doesn’t surprise me.
“I was thinking about this last night and really, Rishi Sunak is a return to politics as usual in terms of how a prime minister might conduct themselves.
“If you think about Boris Johnson, he was a populist, he had this popular appeal, and he liked to break the rules.
“He, to his critics, showed disregard for rules, and in the end, that was his undoing.
“Liz Truss was ideological, really in hot pursuit of what she wanted to do, quite a radical.
“Rishi Sunak is a different type of politician.
“So it doesn’t surprise me that Liz Truss was quite like Boris Johnson in talking about her wins and glossing over her losses.”
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Our political editor Beth Rigby has been talking us through what is likely to happen in the next few days after Rishi Sunak became the next Tory leader.
She said: “What’s he up to now? He’s addressing MPs – we haven’t seen him yet.
“But I think we are going to get a statement from him on camera later today. What does a new Conservative Party leader typically do?
“I imagine what we will see later today is he will go to Conservative HQ – this is what every new Conservative leader does.
“Then I think we will see tomorrow the handover of power, that’s when Liz Truss formally exits Number 10 and has an audience with the King, and then the new prime minister has an audience with the King and makes that journey from Buckingham Palace to the podium outside in the street.
“And he will address the nation.”
Beth added that this is an astonishing turnaround for Mr Sunak.
“But what a moment this is,” she said. “Rishi Sunak, he was down and out in July, he was out of the cabinet, he was back on the backbenches. There were questions about whether he would even remain as an MP.
“He is the first British-Asian prime minister… this really is a ground-breaking moment for the country in so many ways.
“But it’s also controversial because he is the third Conservative prime minister since the 2019 general election.”
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A source within Penny Mordaunt’s campaign team has texted Beth Rigby to say: “We have now passed 90. For the sake of the party, it’s important our members have their say.”
Only 25 Tory MPs have publicly backed the Commons leader – compared with 180 for Rishi Sunak.
We heard from Boris Johnson’s campaign last night, as he stood back from the race, that he’d had 102 backers – something commentators have questioned.
It willbecome clear over the coming hours whether Ms Mordaunt’s campaign is inflating the number to try to gain momentum, or whether the bookies and onlookers like George Osborne have got this completely wrong.
Conservative MP Sir Charles Walkerhas been talking to our political editor Beth Rigby and has not held back on his feelings towards the prime minister.
“I think her position is untenable,” he said.
“She has put colleagues, the country, through a huge amount of unnecessary pain and upset and worry.
“We don’t need a disruptor in No 10. We need an uniter.
“I just think… it is just a situation that is… it can only be remedied I think, with a new prime minister.”
Asked about Ms Truss staying in her position, Mr Walker says: “Look the prime minister has had a very torrid six weeks.
“Personally, I don’t think her position is recoverable. She would obviously take a different view.
“But if you read the mood of the parliamentary party, she has lost authority and you can’t lead a party if you don’t have some authority. She doesn’t have much of that.”
Pressed on whether he is calling for Ms Truss to go, Mr Walker replied: “I think it’s her decision right now. I think if she doesn’t go right now, it will not be her decision. That agency will be taken away from her.”
Asked how long he thinks it will be before that decision gets taken one way or the other, Mr Walker says: “A week or two.”
The MP for Broxbourne, who is standing down at the next election,continued: “I’m just so cross. I’ve just had enough. And I think quite a few of my colleagues have had enough and I’ll be dismissed as being tired and emotional.
“And yes, I am tired, and I am emotional, and I am angry. And I’m in the same place as many of my friends, many of my family, and many of my constituents.”
In an excruciating news conference– so short the gathered political press pack was left open-mouthed as she departed – Liz Truss made her already perilous political position even worse.
Be in absolutely no doubt, the prime minister is in deep trouble.
She has sacked her chancellor, committed a second major U-turn on her mini-budget, and junked the core of her economic policy.
And she did so, awkwardly and uncomfortably, in no more than eight minutes.
In an excruciating news conference – so short the gathered political press pack were left open-mouthed as she departed – Liz Truss made her already perilous political position even worse.
The aim of this breakneck change in direction was to attempt to calm markets and her Conservative colleagues, but instead, she left huge questions unanswered.
It’s worth underlining the significance of what the prime minister just announced.
First, on policy, she has buckled and reversed her position on corporation tax. She will now go ahead with the increase proposed by her leadership rival, Rishi Sunak.
During the contest to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader, Ms Truss had said increasing the rate from 19% to 25% next April would “put off people who want to invest in Britain” and amount to “cutting off our nose to spite our face”.
It was a significant part of the platform on which she was elected Tory leader, nowhumiliatingly discarded in order to bring in around £18bn to fill the black hole left by last month’s mini-budget.
She said it was a “down payment” on the medium-term fiscal plan due to be set out on 31 October – a signal to the markets that she’s prepared to make more reversals if necessary.
Does she still believe it will put people off investing? We don’t know because she didn’t stick around at the news conference long enough to be asked.
On the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor, she expressed her sorrow – but again, did not answer the obvious question about how she can possibly justify his departure without her own.
she can possibly justify his departure without her own.
Image:Liz Truss and her former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng
The chancellor, who was supposed to be one of her closest political friends, was also humiliatingly discarded – along with the government’s radical economic mission for which she had asked him to lead the charge.
The way in which the prime minister delivered this news really matters. Not just because of the lack of scrutiny that came from only taking four questions and barely engaging with them in the answers – but because her party, and indeed the markets, will have been watching to see how she handled the situation.
That news conference was not just about communicating with the public. The messages I received from Conservative MPsahead of the news conference made clear that she needed to put in a really strong, reassuring performance.
Their fears are that she is out of her depth. They want to see that she can handle being prime minister. And the early signs are that her performance today failed on both fronts.
One MP has messaged me saying it was “shockingly bad”, even by Liz Truss’s standards.
Image:Jeremy Hunt has replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor
Jeremy Hunt’s installation as the new chancellor may be intended to show the ship is being steadied – that someone with deep experience in government is at the helm of the economy and that markets do not need to fear further surprises.
But power flows from Number 10. The prime minister is the head of government. The prime minister is the person who must command the confidence of the Commons if they are to remain in post.
This prime minister looks out of her depth. “It’s not going to last,” is how one cabinet minister put it to me.
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