With Liz Truss gone, will the Conservative Party accept their time is up?
Cast your minds back to July 7th 2022. Boris Johnson spoke outside 10 Downing Street, and officially announced what the country knew was coming - he would be stepping down as Prime Minister. After 2 years filled with lies, deceit, law breaking, and general contempt, his party no longer believed him fit to lead, and neither did the country. His time was up.
2 months of Tory leadership campaigning followed, in which the members of the party looked at the options they had available to them, and decided who they thought was the best they had to offer. That person turned out to be Liz Truss - a relative unknown to the masses. On September 6th, after Boris officially tendered his resignation, Liz was asked by Queen Elizabeth to form a government.
Today, October 20th, after just 44 days in office, Liz Truss has announced she too will be stepping down as Prime Minister. Her time is up. 44 days that have been marked by economic turmoil, inparty fighting, MP rebellion, and national instability - this, it seems, is the best the Conservative party had to offer.
During those 45 days, we heard regularly about MPs from her own party who thought she was no good, that her days were numbered, that they were embarrassed to be a Conservative now. From day 1 there has been a lot of noise, and that noise has made me wonder - do the members of the Conservative Party remember they are the ones who chose Liz Truss? Have they forgotten it was they themselves who looked around at what they had to offer and decided she was the best option? If they have decided she, the best they had, is no longer tenable after 44 days, it surely must now be time to question more seriously than ever, if they as a party are in any way still fit to govern?
Sir Charles Walker, MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire since 2005, last night branded Liz Truss’s Government “an absolute disgrace” and her ministers a group of “talentless people.” He went on to say he was “livid” at the state of the Conservative Party, and made clear he believed that backbenchers were going to lose their seats because of the “utterly appalling” Truss administration. But the idea that the sole reason that constituents may no longer vote for their Conservative representatives is simply the mess of the last 44 days is a disingenuous one.
Liz Truss was our 4th Prime Minister in 6 years. Not one of them has managed to both outright win an election, and then complete an entire term. It’s currently being reported that Boris Johnson - the man who had to resign only 3 and half months ago because of pressure from the public and his party - may run for the leadership again. This is a man who, despite still being an MP, hasn’t been in Parliament during this time of turmoil, because he is on holiday in the Caribbean. After such a long string of failings, could we possibly continue to call this a democracy if we simply sub in another Conservative leader chosen by 1.2% of the electorate, instead of taking this to a general election? Especially if that leader could be the same one forced to resign less than 4 months before? If we pretend Liz Truss was simply a blip in the road of an otherwise smooth sailing period of political history?
In the past 6 years we have seen the number of people in poverty go from 13.5million, to 14.5 million. The Trussell Trust have said that in 2021/2022, the need for their food banks service was 81% higher than in the 2016/2017 year. We are facing a cost of living crisis in which an extra 1 million people are predicted to be plunged into poverty this winter. We are being told that everyone is facing these issues, but the truth is, the UK is the worst hit in Western Europe in terms of the energy crisis. In fact, the only country in Europe where the cost is higher than here is Czechia. A poorly thought out Brexit strategy left us with a currency that has fluctuated about 10% below it’s pre-referendum value, according to academic think tank UK in a Changing Europe, leaving UK households poorer by increasing the cost of imports, resulting in higher inflation and lower real wage growth. The International Economic Review estimates that Brexit has increased consumer prices by 2.9%, which translates to an increased cost of £870 to the average household per year. In the last 44 days alone we have seen 2 Home Secretary’s, 2 Chancellor’s of the Exchequer, and now of course, a change of PM. This is unprecedented in British History.
Liz Truss and her administration are not the only problem, not by a long shot. Tensions have been building for at least the last 18 months, potentially longer. If anything, Liz Truss is simply the straw that broke the camel’s back, as the saying goes. We do not get to a point where other world leaders feel the need to comment on our political unrest in just 44 days - that is a culmination of long periods of instability.
It feels as though we are now at a precipice, a tipping point. It’s not hyperbole to say that the country is in chaos, and whatever decision is made in the coming days and weeks will be one of the most important political decisions this country has had to make in the last 6 years, and potentially in the 21st century so far.
Whatever way you cut it though, it’s clear. The Conservative Party’s definitive claim to power is up. Is their time in Government up too? This is the question that has to be put to the people of the country. And if the Conservative Party truly want to represent the people, surely they must know their only option is to do exactly that.