Liz Truss on the ropes after sacking second minister

British Prime Minister Liz Truss was clinging to power on Thursday after she sacked her home secretary and was forced to deny her chief whip had quit.

Liz Truss attempts to rally her backbenchers at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday by insisting she was a ‘fighter not a quitter’. Picture: AFP

British Prime Minister Liz Truss was clinging to power on Thursday after she sacked her home secretary and was forced to deny her chief whip had quit amid a total breakdown of party unity and discipline.

The prime minister replaced Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she opposed the government’s immigration policy and leaked sensitive papers to her supporters.

In a brutal letter after her sacking, Ms Braverman accused Ms Truss of being deluded, suggesting she should take responsibility for her own mistakes and resign.

On Wednesday night chief whip Wendy Morton appeared to quit after attempts to force Tory MPs to back the government’s fracking policy descended into chaos in the House of Commons.

Ministers were accused of physically pushing MPs into the government’s voting lobbies in scenes that one senior Tory described as a “pitiful reflection on the Conservative Party at every level”.

Ms Truss was barracked by Tory MPs as she went through the lobby and in the chaos failed to vote herself. At one point an MP claimed the prime minister ran after Ms Morton and lost her security detail as she attempted to convince her not to quit.

Deputy chief whip Craig Whittaker was also said to have quit and reportedly said: “I am f..king furious and I don’t give a f..k any more.” However, on Wednesday night 10 Downing Street said that Ms Morton and Mr Whittaker remained in post.

A cabinet minister who is one of Ms Truss’s loyal supporters told The Times that her premiership was over: “It’s terminal, the rancour in the parliamentary party is too much. She can’t recover from this.”

In an attempt to shore up her support, Ms Truss replaced Ms Braverman with Grant Shapps, one of her harshest backbench critics, who had previously canvassed MPs about a move to oust her. Just four days ago he described the Prime Minister’s mini-budget as “lamentable” and accused her of undermining the Tories’ fiscal credibility.

The departure of Braverman leaves Truss further isolated amid concern that those on the right of the party, who were instrumental in making her leader, will now turn against her. In her resignation letter, Ms Braverman accused Ms Truss of abandoning key pledges on reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration.

She suggested that the prime minister should quit. “The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes,” she said. “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right, is not serious politics.”

Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, had been expected to wait until after October 31, when Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, who replaced the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng last Friday, presents his fiscal statement, before making any intervention. On Wednesday night senior Conservative MPs said that Truss’s departure may be accelerated. “We could be talking days, not weeks,” they said.

Charles Walker, a veteran Tory MP, told the BBC: “As a Tory MP of 17 years it’s a shambles and a disgrace. I think it’s utterly appalling. I’m livid.

“I hope all those people who put Liz Truss in No 10 — I hope it was worth it. I hope it was worth it for the ministerial red box. I hope it was worth it to sit round the cabinet table. Because the damage they have done to our party is extraordinary.”

Ms Braverman was sacked by Ms Truss after sending one of her supporters details of the government’s plans to relax immigration rules, which she opposes. She accidentally copied the email to someone with a similar name and the matter was reported to the whips.

In the Commons there were chaotic scenes after No 10 dropped a previous three-line whip to oppose a Labour motion on fracking. Tory MPs refused to go through the division lobbies because they were uncertain whether they would be stripped of the whip, prompting angry confrontations.

Ms Morton and Mr Whittaker, who had insisted on the three-line whip and made the issue a matter of confidence in the government, told colleagues in the chamber they were quitting.

Earlier in the day Ms Truss had attempted to rally her backbenchers at prime minister’s questions by insisting she was a “fighter not a quitter”.

But she was mocked by the Labour leader Keir Starmer, who said there was a book being written about her, adding:

“Apparently it’s going to be out by Christmas. Is that the release date or the title?”

The Times