‘Do the right thing’: Pressure on Tory MPs to agree a General Election

Conservative MPs came under pressure to agree a General Election yesterday as Nicola Sturgeon urged them to “do the decent thing” and bring the chaos in Downing Street to an end.

As Prime Minister Liz Truss clung on to her job amid speculation her MPs are already plotting to replace her after a disastrous start in No 10, the first minister said the Conservatives had lost the right to govern.

She said: “The utterly calamitous decisions of Liz Truss and her government over the last month have crashed our economy and put people’s incomes, homes and pensions at risk.

“Despite her desperate attempts to shift the blame, she has lost all credibility. Clearly, no-one can have any confidence in the leadership of this lame-duck prime minister. The only decent thing for Tory MPs to do now is call time on Liz Truss and this entire UK Government, and allow for a general election.”

The best thing Liz Truss could do for economic stability now is resign. Her decisions have crashed the economy and heaped misery on people already struggling with a cost of living crisis.
The onlydecent thing for Tory MPs to do now is call time on her govt and allow an election https://t.co/VYAISqLzPl

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) October 14, 2022

Truss, who succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister on September 6, the fourth in six years, is theoretically safe from a leadership vote from Tory backbench MPs for another year under party rules.

However, a Commons vote of no confidence in the government could be put forward by opponents while urging Tory MPs to abstain. A prime minister without the confidence of the House would be expected to resign or dissolve parliament, triggering an election.

The escalating calls to allow voters to give their verdict on the government were echoed by Roz Foyer, STUC general secretary. She said: “It is already too late to undo all of the economic damage wreaked by Liz Truss over the past few weeks but things will only get worse while she remains in office. If she won’t resign, then parliament must force a General Election and that can only happen if MPs step up to the plate.

“Tory MPs, including those from Scotland, must put the interests of their country and their constituents above their own, and do the right thing.”

© Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Truss inherited an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons from Boris Johnson but Labour’s already commanding lead in the polls has surged in recent weeks.

Many Conservative MPs face losing their seat in an election but sources suggest that while “turkeys don’t vote for Christmas” morale is so poor and the opinion of Truss so low in the parliamentary party that an increasing number of MPs may prefer to take their chances at the polls than continue to support her chaotic administration.

Recent polls have given Labour a 30 points-plus lead in the polls, which would deliver a landslide victory, and in a flagship speech, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer yesterday said the recent U-turns after an unfunded tax-cutting budget and the sacking of chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, only underlined why the Conservatives’ time was up.

He said: “No doubt we will hear plenty of laughable excuses in the coming days. After 12 years of stagnation, that’s all her party has left, but even they know she can’t fix the mess she has created.

“Deep down, her MPs know something else. They no longer have a mandate from the British people.”

In a speech in Barnsley yesterday, Starmer – echoing his predecessor Neil Kinnock’s description of Militant councillors using taxis to serve redundancy notices on workers in Liverpool – accused Truss of presiding over “grotesque chaos” after she sacked Kwarteng on Friday following the introduction of the tax-cutting measures that she had campaigned on during the Conservative leadership race.

His so-called mini-budget was blamed for crashing the economy and has been followed by a series of U-turns.

Starmer said: “There are no historical precedents for what they have done to our economy. Britain has faced financial crises before but the prime ministers and chancellors who wrestled with them all acted fast.

“When their policies ran against the rocks of reality, they took decisive action.

“But this lot, they didn’t just tank the British economy, they also clung on as they made the pound sink. Clung on as they took our pensions to the brink of collapse. Clung on as they pushed the mortgages and bills of the British public through the roof.

“There is still one person clinging on. The prime minister.”

Truss fired Kwarteng and announced a U-turn on cancelling cuts to corporation tax at a nine-minute, four-question news conference on Friday, branded unconvincing by many of her own MPs.

Speculation at Westminster includes claims of a plot to oust her within days while many backbenchers are suggesting she will not spend Christmas in Downing Street.

However, her first weeks in the job have only deepened division between the already riven Tory MPs and observers believe talk of a Rishi Sunak-Penny Mordaunt joint ticket will founder because the party’s MPs will not unite behind any candidate.

Since the chancellor’s “financial event” three weeks ago, interest rates have risen sharply, lenders have pulled mortgage products from the market and the pound has plummeted in value against the dollar.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “This is a Tory government that has come to the end of the road. In the national interest we now need a general election.

“Tory MPs should do the right thing and call for one.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “It’s time for Conservative MPs to put the country first and back calls for an election. Their party is tired and out of touch.”