|
Truss is trying to shore up support from within her party after
she was forced to scrap her vast tax-cutting plan, leading some
Conservative lawmakers to call for her to be replaced as leader
just weeks after she took office.
She has admitted her radical economic plans had gone "too far
and too fast" after investors dumped the pound and government
bonds.
However, with mortgage rates soaring and official figures
showing inflation back to a 40-year high, Truss, who was elected
by Conservative members on a promise of tax cuts and maintaining
public spending, faces a struggle to convince the public and her
party she could address the cost of living crisis.
Polls indicate Conservatives are some 30 points behind the
opposition Labour Party, and her own ratings are calamitous.
"What I'm not convinced by ... is that going through another
leadership campaign, defenestrating another prime minister, will
either convince the British people that we're thinking about
them rather than ourselves or convince the markets to stay
calm," foreign minister James Cleverly told Sky News.
But, speculation about the prime minister's future continues to
grow, with media reporting that rebellious Conservatives are
weighing up who should replace her, not if she should go.
"I think her position is becoming increasingly untenable,"
Conservative lawmaker Steve Double told Times radio. "We've seen
a complete reversal of just about everything she stood for in
her leadership election campaign. I think many of us are asking
exactly what does Liz Truss now believe and stand for?"
Truss will face parliament later on Wednesday for her usual
weekly question and answer session, and later the main
opposition Labour Party will seek to hold a vote on an outright
ban on fracking, after the government last month lifted a
moratorium in England that had been in place since 2019.
Conservative 'whips', responsible for enforcing discipline among
members of parliament, sent a message to their lawmakers saying
the vote would be treated as a "confidence motion in the
government".
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Michael Holden and William James;
Editing by Kate Holton)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
