BEST FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND WIRE

Dear John 

The Truss Government has crumbled faster than an overcooked tofu-and-lettuce scramble. The Prime Minister–and her party–are well and truly fracked. Let’s take cover and try to parse out the highlights from the final act of the Truss premiership.

44 day Liz

On Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister announced her resignation. Her downfall, after weeks of chaos set off by her mini-budget, makes her the shortest-serving premier in British history. 

With the head-spinning speed at which the Truss era came and went, it’s worth zeroing in on the events of this week to see how we got here. 

Home Secretary goes home

After Truss managed to get through PMQs on Wednesday, on the heels of her new Chancellor gutting her economic agenda, the wheels began falling off in earnest later that afternoon when the Home Secretary was sacked. 

Officially, Suella Braverman resigned for a breach in the ministerial code (remember that old thing?) related to official communications being circulated improperly. If you turn down your BS alarm, you’ll hear reports of a 90-minute shouting match between Braverman and Truss over migration policy.

In a withering resignation letter, Braverman expressed serious concerns about Truss’s premiership and challenged her to resign in barely-concealed terms. 

Mad Mogg: Thunderdome 

But greater chaos was yet to come. Later on Wednesday, the House voted on a Labour motion to ban fracking, a flagship Truss policy in contravention of the 2019 Tory manifesto. 

As Conservative whips declared this vote as a de-facto vote of confidence in the Prime Minister, furious Tory MPs who had pledged not to allow fracking in their constituencies began publicly rebelling. 

In the face of mounting opposition, the Prime Minister was forced into what would be her final u-turn with the energy minister announcing the matter was no longer a vote of confidence. The motion was defeated, but dozens of Conservatives either voted with Labour or abstained.

Farce turned to fracas as members reported physical scuffles among Conservative parliamentarians outside the chamber during the vote. Jacob Rees-Mogg and Therese Coffey were reported to be among the manhandlers-in-chief.

With that, the trickle of no confidence letters turned to a flood.

Oh, lovely, another leadership race  

Truss’s resignation has set off a renewed leadership election in the Conservative Party. The compressed race will see a new Prime Minister crowned by Tory MPs or party members by the end of next week.

On Monday, there will be one or two votes by Conservative MPs between any candidates who garner the backing of 100 MPs. If there are three, the first vote  will eliminate one candidate, before the final two go to an online membership vote.

The rumour mill says that the hope is, should more than one candidate get the support of 100 MPs, the loser of the indicative vote will stand down to bypass the members, who last time made the disastrous decision to choose Truss. 

And then there were (probably) three

The odds-on favourite remains Rishi Sunak, best known for not having any working-class friends, funnelling money away from deprived urban areas to the downtrodden of Royal Tunbridge Wells, and predicting exactly what would happen when Liz Truss unveiled her mini-budget. He was the favoured candidate of Tory MPs last time around, and he will go into this round with the confidence of someone who’s told his predecessor not to pee on the electric fence.

Also jetting back from his (working?) vacation in the Caribbean to rescue the Tories from the crisis he created is Boris Johnson. He is pointing to his 2019 victory as the party’s only hope to rescue any chance of a general election wipeout. However, he will have to contend with both his widespread unpopularity among everyone other than Tory party members and the fact that he remains under investigation for misleading Parliament with hearings expected to begin in November and witnesses queued out the door.

Following her barely-disguised audition for the job, Penny Mordaunt has also thrown her hat in the ring, as one of few of Truss’s allies to survive with her reputation relatively unscathed. Her backers will highlight her performance deputising for Truss as evidence of her ability to manoeuvre around an opposition already screaming for a general election.

Never mind the Ballots

As the clowns clamour to anoint a new premier, the world of the sane has similarly begun collectively demanding an immediate general election to install a competent Government and end the chaos.

All opposition parties are calling for an immediate general election, alongside a broad spectrum of trade unions, campaign groups, and even some Conservative MPs. Various petitions demanding the same have garnered millions of signatures. Check out Best for Britain’s updated Can’t Wait campaign for a general election here.

Whoever is chosen to succeed Liz Truss will face a crisis of credibility and legitimacy. 

Brexit trade torpor

With the Trussosphere collapsing in on itself like a neutron star, you’d be forgiven for missing a report that came out of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on Wednesday morning.

In one of the most comprehensive studies yet of the damage Brexit has caused to UK trade, the ESRI revealed that UK exports to the UK are down 16%, and imports from the EU are down 20% since the start of 2021, compared to projected levels for the UK as an EU member state.

As prospects for the Tories’ vaunted USA and India trade deals sputter, UK businesses will have to hope that their skyrocketing gas bills and rent can be paid with ‘control.’ Read the response from the UK Trade and Business Commission here.

Meanwhile, in Labourland

At the Trades Union Congress in Brighton on Thursday, Keir Starmer drew a stark contrast between his party and the pandemonium enveloping the Conservatives.

In his speech, Starmer took the Tories to task for their failures on the NHS and the cost of living crisis, accusing them of dragging the public into the centre of their intraparty power struggles. He concluded with his most forceful and public call for an immediate general election.

While he had to fend off criticism for his lack of public support for striking key workers, Starmer struck an authoritative note at the TUC as his party surges ever-further ahead in the polls. 

Best wishes,

Tommy Gillespie

Press Officer, Best for Britain

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