UK PM Liz Truss meets Tory committee chief amidst calls for her resignation

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss met with Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 committee amidst calls for her resignation. The resignation calls strengthened after second senior minister resigned from the Truss cabinet on Wednesday.

According to reports, the Prime Minister requested a meeting with the committee chief to understand the mood among party MPs. However, more MPs are calling for the resignation of Liz Truss who has been in office only for six weeks.

Miriam Cates, an executive member of the 1922 Committee told BBC that Liz Truss's position was untenable and she should step down. “ I think it seems as though her position is untenable now. Let's see what today holds, but from my point of view it does seem like the confidence of MPs has been lost. I don't know how that would come back really,” Cates said. She added, “Last night's scenes were very distressing, humiliating in some ways.” 

 UK Prime Minister Liz Truss was hanging on to power by a thread on Thursday, after a senior minister quit her government with a barrage of criticism and a vote in the House of Commons descended into chaos and acrimony.

A botched economic plan unveiled by the government last month triggered financial turmoil and a political crisis that has seen the replacement of Truss' Treasury chief, multiple policy U-turns and a breakdown of discipline in the governing Conservative Party.

Many Conservatives say Truss must resign - but she has remained defiant, saying she is a fighter and not a quitter. Conservative lawmaker Simon Hoare said the government was in disarray.

“Nobody has a route plan. It's all sort of hand-to-hand fighting on a day-to-day basis,” he told the BBC on Thursday. He said Truss had about 12 hours to turn the situation around. 

Newspapers that usually support the Conservatives were vitriolic. An editorial in the Daily Mail was headlined: 'The wheels have come off the Tory clown car.'

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, sent onto the airwaves Thursday morning to defend the government, insisted the administration was providing stability. But she was unable to guarantee Truss would lead the party into the next election. “At the moment, I think that's the case," she said.

With opinion polls giving the Labour Party a large and growing lead, many Conservatives now believe their only hope of avoiding electoral oblivion is to replace Truss. But they are divided about how to get rid of her and as yet there is no front-runner to succeed her.

A national election does not have to be held until 2024, and under Conservative Party rules, Truss technically is safe from a leadership challenge for a year. The rules can be changed if enough lawmakers want it. There is fevered speculation about how many lawmakers have already submitted letters calling for a no-confidence vote.

In a major blow, Home Secretary Suella Braverman resigned Wednesday after breaching rules by sending an official document from her personal email account. She used her resignation letter to lambast Truss, saying she had concerns about the direction of this government.

“The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes,” she said in a thinly veiled dig at Truss.

Braverman was replaced as home secretary, the minister responsible for immigration and law and order, by former Cabinet minister Grant Shapps. He's a high-profile supporter of Rishi Sunak, the former Treasury chief defeated by Truss in the final round of the Conservative leadership race.

Speaking to lawmakers for the first time since the mini-budget U-turn, Truss apologized Wednesday and admitted she had made mistakes during her six weeks in office, but insisted that by changing course she had taken responsibility and made the right decisions in the interest of the country's economic stability. 

Opposition lawmakers shouted 'Resign!' as she spoke in the House of Commons. But she insisted, "I am a fighter and not a quitter."