Liz Truss must resign or be forced out by all Tory MPs who call themselves patriots – Scotsman comment

It is extraordinary, deeply regrettable and, frankly, absurd that today The Scotsman is calling for the resignation of a second Prime Minister in less than a year.
Liz Truss speaks at a brief press conference about her decision to sack Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor (Picture: Daniel Leal/WPA pool/Getty Images)Liz Truss speaks at a brief press conference about her decision to sack Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor (Picture: Daniel Leal/WPA pool/Getty Images)
Liz Truss speaks at a brief press conference about her decision to sack Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor (Picture: Daniel Leal/WPA pool/Getty Images)

Boris Johnson’s inability to tell the truth meant he had to go. Liz Truss’s foolish adherence to an out-dated economic ideology and her scorn for more pragmatic approaches has made the serious financial problems facing millions of people substantially worse.

Given she and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng were in lockstep over their plans for reckless, unfunded tax cuts, the reasons why she chose to sack him following the turmoil these policies unleashed should equally apply to her.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

His resignation letter and her response demonstrate they remain very much fellow-travellers; they should, therefore, share the same fate. “Your vision of optimism, growth and change was right,” Kwarteng told Truss. “We share the same vision for our country and the same firm conviction to go for growth,” she replied.

It seems clear Kwarteng was sacked not because Truss thinks he did anything wrong, but because she believes the only way she can survive in office is by making him a sacrificial lamb.

Many will welcome the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor – the UK’s fourth in three months – as the arrival of an adult in the room.

However, if this truly signals a change of direction, it makes Truss’s mandate as Prime Minister even more tenuous, given that she will presumably not deliver the policies that saw her elected as Conservative leader by some 80,000 party members. Will Truss now attempt to masquerade as Rishi Sunak? Would it not be better to have the real thing?

If Conservative MPs truly had the national interest at heart, they would force a general election. Clearly, they are unlikely to do that, given the Labour landslide it would produce.

However, their second most honourable course is to insist that Truss resigns and is replaced by a credible One Nation Tory, who would at least have a chance of repairing some of the harm done, to country and party.

Read More
Kwasi Kwarteng 'sacked': Chancellor of the Exchequer loses job over mini-budget ...

True patriotism is not about wrapping yourself in a flag or declaring your country to be superior to all others. It’s about being concerned, worried even, for the health and happiness of everyone you love and all those upon whom they depend – that is, the nation.

Any real patriot would be aghast at the damage being done to people’s lives and livelihoods, their standards of living, by the leaders charged with improving them. As the energy price crisis bites over the next few months, mortgage interest rates could rise to six per cent, fuelled by Truss and Kwarteng’s mismanagement. People will lose their homes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Kwarteng may be gone but Truss remains and she is not part of the problem, but its source. We need a government that can maintain essential public services like the NHS, education and, indeed, defence and nurture the economy that pays for them.

To wilfully allow a Prime Minister who has demonstrated beyond doubt that she is unfit for office to carry on would be unforgiveable.

Conservative MPs must consider the harm Truss has already caused by her policies, the forced U-turns, the loss of time and credibility, and also the harm that she could inflict if she remains Prime Minister for the next two years. Someone guilty of such serious mistakes in this short space of time can hardly be trusted not to repeat them.

The UK has now not had a fully functioning government for a year, with Boris Johnson spending his last few months desperately clinging to power, followed by the ‘limbo government’ during the Conservative leadership contest, and now the Truss fiasco.

Enough. Truss must go. The UK needs a sensible, patriotic pragmatist. And, assuming they want to avoid electoral annihilation, so does the Tory party.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.