London: News coming from the United Kingdom is that rebels of the ruling Conservative Party are plotting to remove Liz Truss as party leader and prime minister, including her rival Rishi Sunak and his aides. A YouGov poll by The Times has revealed that nearly half of Tory Party supporters believe the wrong leader has been chosen in the form of Liz Truss. The survey found that 62 percent of those who voted for the Conservative Party in the last election said the wrong leadership was elected in the form of a truss, while 15 percent said they had made the right choice.
Panicked Tory members of parliament have begun to consider options among the candidates with the most votes within the parliamentary party. The choices include former British Chancellor Rishi Sunak, 42, of Indian origin, who was Liz Truss’s main rival in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, and third-place House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt. Meanwhile, the government is grappling with the impact of the controversial mini-budget at the end of last month. Britain’s Chancellor Quasi Quarteng returned to London from a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, a day ahead of schedule. A day later, the truss sacked him.
While a U-turn on tax-cutting plans is expected after several rounds of meetings at 10 Downing Street, Tory backbenchers are again likely to replace the party leader. Given that 47-year-old Truss technically cannot face the challenge of leadership for the next 12 months, until a ‘1922 committee’ of powerful backbench lawmakers votes to change its rules. These MPs are considering the possibility of supporting a joint team of Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. If reports are to be believed, the rebel group is looking at Penny Mordaunt as the prime minister and Rishi Sunak as his deputy. Another option is for 49-year-old Mordaunt to become party leader and prime minister and Rishi Sunak as finance minister.
However, loyalists of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson have condemned such an anti-democratic plot by disgruntled Sunak supporters. Tory MP and Johnson’s staunch supporter Nadine Dorris tweeted: “No offense to Sunak or Mordaunt, but the government is not a bottle twisting game where if you don’t like the result you can spin the bottle again.”. All the MPs who agitated for the removal of Liz Truss are supporters of Sunak. They agitated for the removal of Boris Johnson and now they will continue to plot until they find a way. This is not a conspiracy to remove a PM but to reverse democracy.
