Battling to salvage her government amid a backlash against her economic plans, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss on Friday fired the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng.
Kwarteng, who had rushed back early from the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, was replaced by the centrist former foreign secretary and Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt. Hunt is Britain's fourth chancellor this year.
"I have acted decisively today because my priority is ensuring our country's economic stability," she said at a news conference at Downing Street on Friday. "I want to be honest, this is difficult. But we will get through this storm."
The current turmoil was sparked by her government's tax-cutting “mini budget”, announced on September 23. She announced the government would abandon the planned cut to corporation tax, scrapping a key part of the economic plan.
Will Truss be replaced?
Rebels on the backbenches of the UK's governing Conservative Party are said to be plotting to replace Liz Truss as party leader and Prime Minister, according to reports. A YouGov poll for the The Times found that almost half of Tory party supporters believe the party chose the wrong candidate in the leadership election.
The YouGov poll found that among those who voted for the Conservatives at the last election, 62 per cent said that party members had made the wrong choice when the race was shortlisted between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, compared with 15 per cent who said they had got it right.
Technically, Truss cannot face a leadership challenge until 12 months. However, according to reports, the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench MPs could vote to change their rules. The MPs, reportedly, are considering possibility of rallying behind a joint team of Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the Commons, where the former is the prime minister and the latter his deputy.
Truss could be removed as prime minister within “days or weeks”, Conservative MPs believe, according to multiple reports. Kwarteng believes that Truss only bought herself “a few weeks” left in the job by forcing him out, The Times quoted a source as saying.
-with PTI inputs
