This is not the time to change Conservative leader, minister argueson October 18, 2022 at 11:20 am

This is not the time to be changing leader, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey has argued, as he defended the prime minister.

Suggestions that there is a candidate to replace Liz Truss who would unite the party is “for the birds”, he added.

Ms Truss has insisted she will lead the Conservatives into the next general election, despite U-turns leaving her battling to salvage her authority.

Labour is calling for an election regardless of Ms Truss’s position.

Speaking the the BBC’s Political Editor Chris Mason, Ms Truss apologised for the mistakes she made over the ill-fated mini-budget.

On Monday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt reversed almost all of the tax-cutting proposals laid out last month by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

The prime minister chaired a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday morning, and is also expected to hold talks later with the European Research Group of Tory MPs, who are on the right of the party.

And Ms Truss has been holding meetings with her cabinet ministers and backbench MPs as she tries to reassure her party.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told BBC Breakfast the “only thing left from the prime minister’s plan is higher mortgage rates and higher bonuses for bankers”.

She said the prime minister “can put herself and all of us out of this misery by resigning and calling a general election”.

A YouGov poll on Tuesday has found that Ms Truss favourability rating has fallen to -70. Just one in 10 Britons have a favourable opinion of the prime minister, according to the poll.

On Monday, Mr Hunt announced that nearly all the tax cuts announced at last month’s mini-budget would be scrapped.

And he said the government’s energy support package – a policy repeatedly championed by Ms Truss in defence of her premiership – will be reduced from April.

The reversals have prompted some Tory MPs to talk privately about how Ms Truss could be ejected from office, despite party rules preventing a formal leadership challenge for a year.

Five Conservative MPs have now publicly called for her to resign.

Prime Minister Apologises for Mistakes

Liz Truss told the BBC’s Chris Mason she was “sorry for the mistakes that have been made”.

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only)

Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell said Conservative MPs should recognise “the best possible answer for good government” is to make sure leadership under Ms Truss and Mr Hunt works.

“They are now working together in tandem and I think that arrangement has got to be given the chance to work” he said.

“If it’s not a success and it doesn’t work then the Conservative parliamentary party will have to think again.”

Privately, several members of the Conservative parliamentary party have been calling for Ms Truss to step aside.

One MP described Ms Truss’s meeting with a group of backbenchers as “the first time I have heard a corpse deliver its own eulogy”.

At a meeting of the centrist One Nation Tories, several MPs called for a cabinet reshuffle.

Following the meeting, MP Simon Hoare said: “If there was a seriousness about a resetting and a recalibration then there would have to be a reshuffle.”

Tactics reportedly under consideration include submitting no-confidence letters in a bid to force party bosses into a rule change.

The 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs may be asked to look at changing rules to allow MPs to bypass party members and pick a new leader themselves.

Mr Heappey said the public “will not indulge the Conservative Party tearing itself apart” with another change of leadership.

“We have seen over the past two or three weeks what the economic price of political instability has been,” Mr Heappey added.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast he admitted the mini-budget was “unhelpful”.

He said “dozens” of his Tory MP colleagues are “gravely concerned” but “they like me recognise this is not the time to be changing leader again”.

And speaking to Sky News, Mr Heappey also said that “given how skittish our politics are” at the moment “I don’t think there’s the opportunity to make any more mistakes”.

He said Ms Truss had “fronted up to her mistake very quickly” but “there are people in the parliamentary party who don’t want that to be the end of it”.

There appears to be little agreement over who should take over from Ms Truss if she is removed.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has quashed rumours that he could replace Ms Truss should she resign.

Speaking to the Times, he said he will be holding on to his current job and accused Tory MPs of playing “political parlour games”.