Getting rid of Truss would lead to a nasty few months. But it may be the only way for Conservative MPs to save their skins
Is it enough to save her? Jeremy Hunt’s rescue package for Britain’s battered economy was announced today, but its subplot is a rescue package for a battered prime minister. The fate of the economy hangs on the markets and may take weeks to resolve. The fate of the prime minister, her economic policy devastated to the point of ridicule by Hunt, could be a matter of days. Rarely has a chancellor of the exchequer so utterly rubbished his boss. Can Liz Truss survive?
There is one subject on which all MPs are experts; that is their re-election. The future of the nation, the economy and their party may matter, but their jobs matter more. A growing number of Tory MPs face instant unemployment in two years’ time, thanks to Truss – a leader forced on them two months ago by party members, against their preference for Rishi Sunak. Their judgment has been more than vindicated by Truss’s performance in office. The polls suggest that dozens of them are doomed.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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