On reprieve after six weeks in Downing Street, British Prime Minister Liz Truss entered a new zone of turbulence on Wednesday with the surprise resignation of her Home Secretary and a feverish outbreak in Parliament.
Rejected by public opinion, contested within her own majority, the conservative leader, who claims to want to remain in office despite the abandonment of her economic program, once again sees her credibility and her authority weakened, after a day of great nervousness in Westminster.
Less than a week after having had to dismiss her finance minister and close friend, Kwasi Kwarteng, she lost the very right-wing head of the “Home Office”, in charge of the thorny file of illegal crossings of the Channel, which reach levels records.
Suella Braverman, 42, said she resigned for using her personal email to send official documents, breaking the departmental code. While making his my culpashe launched a heavy charge against the head of government.
In her letter of resignation, Suella Braverman expressed her “serious concerns” about the government’s policy which, according to her, is giving up on its promises, in particular on the migration file.
She was replaced in the process by Grant Shapps, Minister of Transport under Boris Johnson. By naming a supporter of her former opponent in the race for power (and potential candidate to replace her), Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss is taking advantage of this new chaotic episode of her mandate to display an opening which she has been accused of missing since her arrival. in power.
” Harassment “
Added to this intense saga was a heatwave in Parliament in the evening, around a vote – won by the government – relating to the disputed lifting of the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique for producing shale gas. .
A Labor MP, Chris Bryant, called for the opening of an investigation, explaining that he had witnessed scenes of forced voting within the majority and of “harassment”.
A qualification rejected by the Minister of Energy, Jacob Rees-Mogg, before Downing Street clarified in the evening that, despite the noises which agitated Westminster, an official of the parliamentary majority and his deputy remained at their post.
Does the departure of Suella Braverman begin a hemorrhage within the government like the one which had been fatal to Boris Johnson in July?
In any case, it falls very badly for Liz Truss, who is seeking to regain control after her new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, broke up the massive tax cuts she had promised on Monday.
Responsible for reassuring the markets, Jeremy Hunt is now considered to have gained the upper hand over Liz Truss. In addition to canceling almost all the tax cuts promised by the Prime Minister, he warned of future savings in public spending, raising fears of a return to austerity after the 2008 financial crisis.
The social context is already explosive, and inflation hit a 40-year high of 10.1% in September.
According to a YouGov poll, only one in ten Britons have a favorable opinion of Liz Truss, one in five among Conservative Party voters. And 55% of the members of the majority party believe that Liz Truss should resign, two years before the legislative elections where the Labor opposition would defeat the Conservatives according to the polls.
Now, six MPs from her party have already publicly urged Liz Truss to leave. In the absence of an obvious successor, the conservatives are however reluctant to engage in a new and long process of appointing a new leader, and are looking for a consensus to agree on a name, but seem far from achieve it.