United Kingdom | Liz Truss silent after another public humiliation

(London) Liz Truss no longer responds. Summoned by the opposition to come and explain herself to Parliament on Monday, the British Prime Minister was represented after a new public humiliation: the abandonment by her new Minister of Finance of her economic program.

Adding to the unease, she has been silent for three days and sent Penny Mordaunt, in charge of relations between the government and the House of Commons, a name sometimes mentioned to succeed her, to answer questions from the opposition.

Labor leader Keir Starmer denounced the “absolute vacuum” at the top of power.

“Where is the prime minister? She hides, avoids questions, afraid of her shadow,” he thundered. ” Where is she ? repeated elected officials.

She “is hiding in Downing Street, terrified of having to answer for the damage she has caused,” said Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Kirsten Oswald. “If she doesn’t have the courage to come today, is there any point in her coming back?” »

M^me Mordaunt, who apologized three times on behalf of Ms.^me Truss for the recent turmoil which has “added to the concern”, cited a “serious reason” for his absence to questions from the opposition, without providing details. She “is not under a desk”, she had to assure, causing general hilarity.

M^me Truss then arrived in Parliament, sitting silent, staring blankly, as new Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt explained to MPs his 180-degree fiscal shift. Canceling most of the measures announced at the end of September, he transformed into an empty shell the economic policy of M^me Truss, who wanted to boost growth through tax cuts of tens of billions of pounds financed by debt, panicking the markets.

Exit, he announced in particular, the freezing of energy bills for individuals, planned for two years. This extremely costly measure in the midst of soaring energy costs will be reviewed in April. Exit also the reduction in income tax, postponed “indefinitely”.

Downing Street insisted it was still leading the country, and had “worked closely” with Mr Hunt “to agree to this approach”.

untenable

The only public intervention of M^me Truss since Friday, when a wind of panic is blowing among the Conservatives two years before the legislative elections, has been a meager handful of tweets, one of which said on Monday that the “Britons need stability”.

Hiding at the Prime Ministers’ country residence this weekend, after a disastrous press conference on Friday, where she turned on her heels after 8 minutes, M^me Truss seems to have lost all power, as some members of her conservative camp plot to overthrow her, and anger is brewing.

The conservative press fires red balls at the one whose government program has been torn to pieces, and four conservative deputies have already publicly called for her departure, 41 days after she came to power. Dozens of others would be ready for a motion of no confidence.

The crisis of confidence, after the storm on the markets that followed these budget announcements, has accelerated so much in recent days that M^me Truss, whom a majority of Britons want to leave, with catastrophic polls for the Conservatives, sacrificed his finance minister and friend Kwazi Kwarteng on Friday.

Since then, Jeremy Hunt, an unsuccessful candidate twice for Downing Street but a calm and experienced politician – he has been Foreign Secretary and Minister of Health – appears as the pilot on the plane.

Very present since his appointment on Friday, he said he was determined to be “honest” with the British.

“I think Jeremy Hunt is the de facto prime minister,” MP Roger Gale told Sky News.

“I don’t think the situation is tenable and that it can stay any longer,” MP Angela Richardson told Times Radio, attributing to Ms.^me Truss the responsibility for a hole of “10 billion pounds” lost due to the crisis caused by its budget announcements of September 23, “which must now be filled”.