"Game is up for Liz Truss" - Tory MP Tory MP Crispin Blunt has said the “game is up” for Liz Truss, telling Channel 4’s The Andrew Neil Show that he does not think the prime minister can survive the current crisis. “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,” he said. Asked how the party would get rid of her, he said: “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected. “Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism ... but it will happen.” Summary A Conservative former minister has said the “game is up” for the prime minister, Liz Truss. Crispin Blunt – who became the first Tory MP to publicly call for her to go – said he does not think she can survive the current crisis and “it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed”. Blunt, who is the Conservative MP for Reigate and was a justice minister in the early years of David Cameron’s premiership, backed Jeremy Hunt in the summer Tory leadership contest. Another Tory MP, Robert Halfon, was also scathing of the Truss government on Sunday, telling Sky News: “The government has looked like libertarian jihadists and treated the whole country as kind of laboratory mice on which to carry out ultra, ultra free-market experiments”. Jeremy Hunt has insisted that Liz Truss is in charge despite her premiership looking increasingly in peril, as he warned of further public spending cuts and failed to rule out more U-turns on her disastrous mini-budget. The new chancellor, now widely seen as the most powerful man in government since he took over from the sacked Kwasi Kwarteng, has buried a series of flagship policies that brought Truss to power. “The prime minister is in charge,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, even though her authority has been seriously undermined by her decision to allow him to tear up her economic agenda in a bid to calm the markets and mutinous Tory MPs. Senior Conservatives will this week hold talks on a “rescue mission” that would see the swift removal of Liz Truss as leader, after the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, dramatically tore up her economic package and signalled a new era of austerity. A group of senior MPs will meet on Monday to discuss the prime minister’s future, with some wanting her to resign within days and others saying she is now “in office but not in control”. Some are threatening to publicly call on Truss to stand down after the implosion of her tax-cutting programme. In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies have warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were “finished as a party” if they toppled a second leader in just a few months. Senior Conservatives have welcomed Hunt’s arrival as chancellor, saying he had effectively “taken over” running the government from Liz Truss after he unceremoniously dumped her tax-cutting agenda on his first day in office. One senior Conservative MP said it was a huge relief to have someone in charge at the Treasury who was able to admit to recent mistakes and had made it his mission to restore the government’s credibility with the markets. They added: “It is just so good to have a grownup in the room, someone who commands respect and who has experience after this period of utter madness.” Rishi Sunak is being talked up by MPs as the best solution for their party’s crisis, given he would be well placed to win back market confidence. “He is the only candidate who would save people 1% on their mortgages,” says a senior Tory. “That’s worth a lot right now.” Yet Boris Johnson loyalists will fight efforts to install Sunak, given many still blame him for Johnson’s downfall. Look how Nadine Dorries has warned that changing leader again would mean a general election. It’s the fear of a general election that is focusing minds. Few believe the party will win a fifth term – whoever leads them. Instead, the aim is to limit losses; to make sure the party’s defeat is not one that puts it out of power for a generation or more. And while it remains very unlikely that Tory MPs would vote for an election, there is a worry that the public mood could turn towards one unless things stabilise. A Tory strategist warns that the window is narrowing when it comes to the public mood: “There is a risk the public see the turmoil and turn in favour of one.” “The more chaotic and mad it is, the more likely we head to election territory,” says a party old hand. “This is why something has to happen soon.” Doctors have rounded on the health secretary, Thérèse Coffey, after she admitted to sharing prescription medicines with others, actions the British Medical Association described as both dangerous and against the law. Coffey told civil servants in a meeting last month that she had given leftover antibiotics to a poorly friend, an admission that came as the discussion on how to alleviate pressures on struggling GPs moved on to public behaviour around antibiotics. Coffey’s comments provoked despair and disbelief among medical professionals who fear that members of the public might reach the false conclusion that it is safe and lawful to share unused medicines because the secretary of state had done so. One doctor accused Coffey of “monumental stupidity”. Monday will be a crucial day for the prime minister. If sterling heads towards parity with the dollar and rising bond yields put upward pressure on mortgage rates, Truss may soon be handing in her resignation to King Charles. The signs are that the U-turns, the sackings and the reassurance won’t be enough. The Bank of England bond-buying scheme came to an end on Friday and Threadneedle Street is in no mind to restart it. Its intervention was all about providing pension funds with breathing space and it now believes they are more resilient as a result. The test for further Bank action is whether there is financial instability – a systemic threat – not whether there is market instability. Governments must “do more than people expect” during times of economic crisis, the former chancellor Alistair Darling has said. Darling, who oversaw the Labour government’s response to the 2008 financial crash while chancellor between 2007 and 2010, said capability to manage the current economic turmoil is “completely absent”. Telling BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show that what happened in 2008 “was not self-inflicted,” he added: It was in continental Europe and the European Union, it was in America, it was right across the world. We were ready. We were prepared. We had a plan. We didn’t have to consult anybody else because we had our own currency, our own central bank, we could do this. He accused the UK government today of “trashing” the Bank of England and failing to engage with the international community. Lawyers have accused the UK of facilitating dangerous onward boat journeys by Tamil refugees who had arrived at the British-claimed territory of Diego Garcia in distress. Fishing boats that fled Sri Lanka were escorted to the Indian Ocean island after getting into difficulty but were later permitted to leave on the same vessels without basic safety equipment, putting passengers – including children – at “grave risk”, lawyers have claimed. One boat, carrying 46 people, ended up on the French territory of Réunion after three weeks at sea while another, carrying 35 people including an 18-month-old child, had to be escorted back to Diego Garcia due to a failed engine but has since been allowed to leave again, they say in legal letters to the government. ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, says he has been taking soundings from Tory MPs and there is gathering consensus that Liz Truss will have to step down. He adds that there are two or possibly three credible candidates: Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and – “if he wants it” – the defence secretary, Ben Wallace. Theres’s been a lot pick-up from Labour people on Tesco chairman John Allan earlier describing the party as “the only team on the field”. Speaking on BBC One this morning, he said: Frankly I don’t think we have seen a growth plan from the Conservatives, as I hope we will. We have seen the beginnings, I think, of quite a plausible growth plan from Labour, so at the moment their ideas are on the table and many of them are actionable and attractive, and I wait to hear what the government has to say in due course, but at the moment there really is only one team on the field. It was music to the ears of Labour supporters such as Kevin Maguire, who tweeted “every little helps” while others wondered if Allan might now be considered part of Liz Truss’s “anti growth coalition”, an increasingly crowded grouping, it seems. Here is clip of the Tory MP Crispin Blunt – apparently the first Conservative MP to say publicly that it was time for Liz Truss to step down – telling Channel 4’s Andrew Neil that “the game is up” for the prime minister. Asked how the party will get rid of her, he said: “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected. “Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism ... but it will happen.” BBC Newsnight’s Nick Watt, formerly of this parish, points out that Blunt was the first senior Tory to call on Iain Duncan Smith to resign back in 2003. Here’s a trip down that particular memory lane: The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has been accused of launching a “power grab” as new legislation proposes to hand sweeping control over the energy industry to the government. The government last week introduced the energy prices bill to parliament to formalise the energy price guarantee, Liz Truss’s flagship policy to reduce household bills by limiting the cost of electricity and gas for two years. However, the Guardian understands that energy suppliers have raised concerns with the business department that the legislation contains proposals for the government to be able to effectively overrule Ofgem, the sector’s independent regulator. Labour has accused Avanti West Coast and ministers of risking chaos over Christmas after it emerged the rail operator’s new contract gives no guarantees on improved weekend services, and with tickets unavailable for booking over the festive period. The shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has written to the government seeking assurances about weekend travel along the hugely busy west coast mainline, saying the current situation was “staggering”. The rail operator had its contract to run trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh extended earlier this month on a short-term basis until April, but was told it must “drastically improve services” after a major contraction of its timetable. New Labour attack adverts that seek to capitalise on the link between the government’s mini-budget and the shock being felt by members of the public when it comes to things like mortgage rates have sparked a mixed reaction Ellie Mae O’Hagan, previously director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) and now at the Good Law Project, isn’t sure about them: The new posters, drawn up by Labour’s advertising agency, Lucky Generals, include one accusing the government of leaving “Britain’s reputation in tatters” alongside a picture of a shredded union jack. Another has the slogan “Your mortgage is going through the roof” incorporated into an image of a huge hole in a roof. A third poster shows Truss and the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, dressed up as clowns, alongside the message: “Send off the clowns.” Benedict Pringle, an advertising professional, also tweeted his thoughts on the adverts, saying: “They all feature tight copywriting & nice visual metaphors for either (a) the economic catastrophe that the Tories have unleashed or (b) the government diminishing the country’s reputation on the world stage.” But he added: “The craft in the execution of the ads looks a little loose to me, which makes me think these aren’t intended to run as final posters.” Another communications professional, Andrew Brightwell, reckoned: "Game is up for Liz Truss" - Tory MP Tory MP Crispin Blunt has said the “game is up” for Liz Truss, telling Channel 4’s The Andrew Neil Show that he does not think the prime minister can survive the current crisis. “I think the game is up and it’s now a question as to how the succession is managed,” he said. Asked how the party would get rid of her, he said: “If there is such a weight of opinion in the parliamentary party that we have to have a change, then it will be effected. “Exactly how it is done and exactly under what mechanism ... but it will happen.” Asked about the winter the UK was facing and the cost of living crisis, the archbishop of Canterbury told the Guardian that the diocese food bank was already overwhelmed. Welby, an old Etonian former oil trader who is currently in Australia touring areas most affected by climate change, directly addressed the question of tax cuts for the wealthy during his Guardian interview: I’m not going to make a party political point because both parties are deeply divided and I’m not going to talk about Australia because I just don’t know the situation. But in the UK, the priority is the cost of living, with the poorest. And from an economics point of view, I’m deeply sceptical about trickle-down theory. You know, if you cut money for the rich, ever since Keynes wrote his general theory in 1936, whenever it was, he showed very clearly that the rich save if they’ve got enough to live on. So if you want to generate spending in the economy, you put more money into the hands of those who need the money to buy food, to buy goods, to buy basic necessities. Archbishop of Canterbury criticises "trickle down" economics The archbishop of Canterbury has delivered a critique of tax cuts for the wealthy saying he is “deeply sceptical” of trickle-down economics (a political gospel preached by Liz Truss) and sees “no moral case” for a government budgets that disproportionately affect the poor. In an interview with the Guardian while on a tour of Australia, Justin Welby said that although he did not wish to be party political he could not see why the rich should be given more money, as they were more likely to simply save rather than spend the extra pounds. When asked if he thought Liz Truss’s government should U-turn on its current policies, he said: I don’t know if it’s U-turning … or rethinking. I think there’s lots of ways … There are lots of ways of addressing the problem. The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing has warned Chancellor Jeremy Hunt against making cuts to the Department of Health’s budget. Hunt has signalled that all departments will be forced to find more savings and cut costs as the Government seeks to restore market credibility. But Pat Cullen of the RCN said: If the new Chancellor is serious about spending money more wisely, then he must invest in the nursing workforce. Asking the Department of Health to make yet more efficiencies - in other words, to cut costs - when the need to invest in the NHS and social care is greater than ever, does not make sense. A nursing workforce crisis was undermining safe patient care, with many choosing to leave the profession for better-paid jobs elsewhere, added Cullen, who said that “the need to pay a demoralised and unvalued profession fairly could not be more pressing.” Needless to say, relations between the new chancellor and NHS workers come with a particular backstory. The Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has said that opportunities to tackle sectarianism and disadvantage have not been taken since the signing of the Good Friday agreement in 1998. Martin said the sad reality is that “far too little has been done” to meet some of the key objectives of the historic peace agreement, which will reach its 25th anniversary next year. PA Media reports that Martin was addressing his party’s annual commemoration of Wolfe Tone in Co Kildare. Martin said a key objective of the negotiations which led to the Good Friday agreement was “to remove the causes of conflict, to overcome the legacy of history, and to heal the divisions which have resulted”. He added: The sad reality is that nearly a quarter of a century later, far too little has been done. Too much time has been wasted. Too few have been willing to undertake the basic work of questioning themselves and finding ways to build a shared respect across historic barriers. Opportunities to tackle disadvantage and to tackle sectarianism have not been taken, and remain unfulfilled. There has been a lot of talk about unity and reconciliation but very little work done to actually build the bridges which make it happen.