Liz Truss is a ‘dead woman walking’, says ex-Cabinet minister
A former Cabinet minister sees Liz Truss as a ‘dead woman walking’ who has ‘lost all credibility’, according to a report.
In one of the most high-profile attacks from within her own party, the prime minister was warned her days at No 10 were numbered due to internal anger over her controversial economic plans.
A number of independent think-tanks and economists have accused the government of ‘gambling’ with the country’s finances by funding tax cuts with debt which it insists pay for itself in the long run through higher growth.
The cuts included a 1p reduction in the basic income tax rate and a 5p fall in the top rate of income tax, which would mean those earning more than £150,000 a year pay the same proportion as those on £50,000 a year.
Tories began to fear a rout at the next election, which worsened when it emerged that the government was not ruling out scrapping a planned rise in benefits to help keep payments in line with inflation.
The pressure climaxed with a screeching U-turn on the abolition of the top rate of tax on Monday.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said the issue had become ‘a distraction from our overriding mission’, adding: ‘We get it, and we have listened.’
The climbdown came just hours after the ex-Cabinet minister warned Ms Truss would be kicked out in a matter of weeks if she didn’t ditch the cut.
The minister, who has not been named, told The Mirror: ‘I am ashamed that we have a party that is having tax cuts for people at the top end, which are going to be funded by cuts in benefits.
‘She should have the good sense to realise she has lost all credibility and cannot do anything to recover. She is a dead woman walking.
‘The idea that Tory MPs in the Red Wall will stick with Liz who is guaranteed to lose their seats is not feasible. They will do something to get rid of her.
‘We cannot hobble along like this for the next 18 months. There will be a trigger point.
The Conservative Party forbids MPs from ousting a new PM before they’ve reached a year in office, though the top Tory argued dissenters would push to change the rules.
Sunday also saw Ms Truss appear to push responsibility for the top tax rate cut onto Mr Kwarteng as her party conference got underway.
Asked if it had been approved by her Cabinet, the PM told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘No, no, we didn’t. It was a decision the chancellor made.’
Former culture secretary and staunch Boris Johnson ally Nadine Dorries accused her of ‘throwing [her] chancellor under the bus’.
Appearing on the Andrew Neil Show on the same day, former Chancellor George Osborne, said it would be ‘touch and go’ whether Mr Kwarteng survives.
Michael Gove, who has also held a number of senior Cabinet positions, previously said he was ‘profoundly’ concerned about the tax cuts.
He threatened to vote against them, also arguing that paying for such measures with increased borrowing is ‘not conservative’.
Damian Green, a former deputy prime minister, warned that the Tories will lose the next election if ‘we end up painting ourselves as the party of the rich’.
Insiders suggested that the plan was so unpopular among backbenchers that they could block it from getting through parliament, potentially paving the way for a no-confidence vote in Ms Truss just months into her leadership.
Labour called for the rest of the tax-cutting mini-budget to be scrapped.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the reversal ‘comes too late for the families who will pay higher mortgages and higher prices for years to come’.
She said: ‘The Tories have destroyed their economic credibility and damaged trust in the British economy.
‘This is not over – it’s not just some distraction.
‘The Tories need to reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle down strategy.’
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